Leafs down Sens for Fourth in a row

Curtis Joseph now has wins in 19 consecutive calender years, and the Leafs have their fourth win in a row, and sixth straight with at least a point.

On the heels of the Leafs fourth win over the Sens this season, this one a 4-3 overtime victory. Brian Burke will have some tough choices to make in the next four days. Especially if the Leafs manage another win Tuesday night.

As of this moment, the Leafs are only 7 points out of a playoff birth. They are also well out of the hunt for the first round draft pick in the up coming draft. So, does Burke trade for the future as he has stated? As is the mandate of the organization. Or, does he take a chance and try to beef up the existing line up to make a push for a play off spot?

Toronto was 1 for 3 on the power play, while Ottawa was 0 for one.

Curtis Joseph made his 6th start of the season and made 29 save to record his second win. He also achieved a career milestone by posting wins in 19 consecutive calender years.



Tim Stapleton turned in another good effort getting his first official NHL goal, and looks to do a good job in the absence of Hagman who is out with a concussion and could be out for the remainder of the season. Stapleton's first goal however, came of the stick of Jason Spezza, who in a failed attempt to clear the puck away, managed to back hand it in to his own net.

Look for Spezza to be a healthy scratch the next game.

The Leafs next action comes on the eve of the trade deadline as they face the red hot New Jersey Devils at home in the Hanger. As always you can hear the game live, right hear on Bench Brawl!

Well, when they blow it.......

When the blow a win streak, they do it big time. Perhaps the finality of the Sundin signing made them all dizzy. Any how, they did in fact lose, to the best team in the east, the Boston Bruins. My buddy Tim will never let me live this one down! The final score was 8-5. Pavel Kubina, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Nik Antropov, Mikhail Grabovski and Jason Blake scored for the Leafs, who had won three in a row.

Vesa Toskala gave up two goals on five shots in the first 4:34 and was pulled for Curtis Joseph. Though Cujo didn't do much better, allowing four goals on 10 shots in the second period. Toskala came back in for the third, when Boston took a 7-5 lead on Ryder’s goal with 9:18 to play.

“Fernandez came in and made the difference in the game,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “Obviously we didn’t start the way we wanted to. It was obviously a good effort to get back into the game, but when you get down that many goals, it’s tough.”

“Sometimes a change like that kind of calms everybody down,” Fernandez said. “When there’s a lot of goals scored, you just hold your stick a little tighter, try to do too much. Sometimes coaches use that (a goalie change) as a motivator for the team, and I think that’s what happened.

The Maple Leafs next action comes Saturday when they are once again on the road to face the Pittsburgh Penguins, and as always, you can hear the call right here on Bench Brawl!