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Mighty Ducks 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1
Anaheim shuts out lifeless Leafs
TORONTO (CP) -- Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn thought his team was too cute. Team captain Mats Sundin reckoned the Leafs were plain ugly.
Both descriptions fit Toronto's lifeless 2-0 loss to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on Tuesday night.
"I think it was our worst game of the year," said Sundin, who was held to a single shot on net.
"We had a poor game from every line except for CuJo (goalie Curtis Joseph). We reverted back to our old habits from last year of being too fancy with the puck."
Goalie Guy Hebert stopped all 19 shots for his second shutout of the season to help the Ducks (8-6-2-1) to their best start in franchise history.
"Guy is going really well," said Paul Kariya, who iced the game with an empty-net goal with 13 seconds remaining. "He was extremely solid. When he didn't clear the puck right away he was in position for the second shot."
Marty McInnis got the only goal the Ducks needed at 7:48 of the second period.
The win was the first for the Ducks in Toronto since Hebert shut out the Leafs 1-0 on Dec. 15, 1993.
"I guess that's the only way we can win in here is to shut them out," said Hebert with a grin.
"I think we're finally putting 60 minutes together and we've been playing better against the better teams."
Joseph also had a strong game in net for Toronto, stopping 22 shots.
The Leafs (10-5-2-0) are still tied with Ottawa for the Eastern Conference lead with 22 points, but the Senators have two games in hand.
After a scoreless first period, the Ducks finally beat Joseph when Ted Donato fed McInnis the puck in the slot. He snapped a shot past Joseph's blocker.
Anaheim had an excellent opportunity to add to their lead on the power play later in the period. Fredrik Olausson ripped a shot off the right post from the point and, seconds later, McInnis drilled one off the other post.
"There was nothing there tonight," said Leaf Steve Thomas, who still has only one goal this season. "We got it in deep a few times, but we didn't go in there and get it, and they brought it out at will."
Quinn said his players were trying to be too pretty with the puck.
"We were making a lot of bad decisions with the puck. We took the lazy way to play and (the Ducks) came to work hard. It was very uncharacteristic of the game we should play."
Notes: Sergei Berezin, with a game-high six shots, leads the league with 77. Kariya, who had five to bring his total to 64, had 429 last year, the second most in the NHL...The Leafs were wearing their away jerseys and the Ducks their home sweaters. Such occasions at the ACC are usually saved for Original Six teams...Tie Domi missed his fourth straight game with bruised ribs... Alexander Karpovtsev, who missed the Leafs' game on Saturday with a sore shoulder, returned to the lineup...Former Leaf Ladislav Kohn played his first game against his old team.
Summary
NHL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
ANAHEIM 0 1 1 2
TORONTO 0 0 0 0 FINAL
GOAL SCORING:
1ST PRD: NONE
2ND PRD: ANA - MARTY MCINNIS 5 (TED DONATO, PAVEL TRNKA) 7:48
3RD PRD: ANA - (EN) PAUL KARIYA 7 (STEVE RUCCHIN) 19:47
POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: ANA - 0 OF 3, TOR - 0 OF 2.
SHOTS ON GOAL: 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
ANA 7 7 10 24
TOR 8 5 6 19
GOALIES: ANA - GUY HEBERT
TOR - CURTIS JOSEPH
OFFICIALS: REF - TROTTIER
LIN - AMELL, KOVACHIK
ATT: 19,148
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