2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Ottawa Senators win 3-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs
The 160th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series took place between the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Raptors. The game took place at the Air Canada Centre, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs this Tuesday in front of around 20,000 fans.
The event saw the Ottawa Senators play the 12th game and the Toronto Maple Leafs play their 11th game of the campaign thus far. This match was anticipated to be one of the tough encounters of the season and proved to be so. In the end,
it was the Ottawa Senators who won the match 3-2.
1st Period
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a great start to the match as they started off in a spectacular fashion. Not only dictating the proceedings in the department of offence but also the defence they dominated the early minutes of the game.
As the period progressed the away team was the one that had the momentum in their favour and started fire shots at the opposing team. They gave the home team a tough time while dominating the technical part of the game coming close to scoring twice in the
opening 10 minutes. The Ottawa Senators displayed some excellent skills with the puck. The kept possession for quite some time and at the end they made attacks to sum up a very dominating period.
The hard work and determination paid off for the Ottawa Senators as they scored and took the lead in the 18th minute. The goal was scored by Mike Fisher through a penalty shot from 33 feet. The period ended with the Ottawa Senators leading 1-0.
During the course of the period the Toronto Maple Leafs made 5 goal attempts without any goals.
2nd Period
The home team started the period on a high once again as they created chances and came along the scoring opportunities. The only flaw in their game was the fact that the lacking of finishing. They could have levelled the score in the 3rd minute
but a simple tip in shot was missed by the forward.
However, the away team was able to score in the 8th minute. They goal came as a result of a counter attack and saw the goal being scored by Sergei Gonchar from 54 feet through a powerful strike. With the score 2-0 in favour of the Ottawa Senators
didn’t stop them from attacking as they continued with the strong attacks they were coming up with.
The constant hard work of the Ottawa Senators paid off as they scored once again in the 10th minute. The goal came as a result of Erik Karlsson from a flick shot from 57 feet. Though both teams came across numerous scoring opportunities but they
weren’t able to convert them into goals as the period ended.
During the course of the period, the Ottawa Senators scored 2 goals out of the 9 goal attempts they made while the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t score any goals out of the 12 goal attempts as both teams went into the break with the Ottawa Senators leading 3-0.
3rd Period
The home team, Toronto Maple Leafs finally had a good start to the 3rd period. They displayed superb ice hockey and this time managed to score in the 6th minute to cut the lead to 2 goals. The goal was scored by Nikolai Kulemin.
The goal was scored from a flick shot from 10 feet and took the score to 1-3. The Toronto Maple Leafs dictated the proceedings but the opposing defence also matched them. This was the reason that the home team was unable to score. Though the Toronto Maple
Leafs scored in the last minute but it was a little too late. The goal was scored by Clarke Macarthur from a decent strike from 18 feet.
The period and the match came to end with the Ottawa Senators winning 3-2. During the course of the final period, the home team made 18 goal attempts scoring twice whereas the Senators couldn’t score and only made 4 goal attempts.
Describing the intense battle the Toronto Maple Leafs Coach said, "You could see how tight we were," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.
"We got into a little bit of a scoring slump, but in the third period, we began to come out of it a little bit."
"When we finally scored, we relaxed a little bit and you could see the difference," Wilson said. "We started having a number of scoring chances -- not that we weren't, but we started having a little more poise. We just have to build on it."
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