NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs defeat Anaheim Ducks 5-2
The second game of Thursday took place at the Air Canada Centre with the Toronto Maples Leafs playing host to the Anaheim Ducks. This was the 697th game of the season which saw around 19,000 fans coming to support their respective teams.
The match was evenly matched after the first two periods of the match but the final period saw the Toronto Maple Leafs edge out ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and eventually winning the match 5-2. Jean-Sebastien Giguere, goal keeper of the Toronto Maple Leafs
was the star selection of the match with 26 saves in the match.
The match was really interesting right from the start till the very end. The first period saw both teams making a slow start as become stronger as the period progressed. Though there were some early chances but the half-hearted shots fired didn’t see any
team break the deadlock.
However, Anaheim Ducks scored the first goal of the match in the 8th minute through a brilliant Dan Sexton shot. The home crowd was silenced after this but the Toronto Maple Leafs with some brilliant pieces of play saw them applauding regularly.
The home team, much to the delight of the fans scored in the 12th minute through Clarke MacArthur to level the scores. The period ended with both teams firing several shots on goal but were unsuccessful in scoring.
The period ended with the scores level on 1-1 with Anaheim Ducks making 9 goal attempts while Toronto Maple Leafs made 15 goal attempts.
The second period saw the Anaheim Ducks started strongly once again as they fired shots and didn’t let the Maple Leafs settle early on in the period. Their dominance saw them scoring once again through Brandon McMillan in the 6th minute to get
into the lead once again.
This time Toronto Maple Leafs were content on not letting Anaheim Ducks run away so they attacked which resulted in them totally dominating the game after that. The Toronto Maple Leafs managed to score through Carl Gunnarsson in the 14th minute
and level the scores. A few minutes later, Toronto Maples Leafs scored once again via Tyler Bozak’s long range powerful strike to take the lead.
Toronto Maple Leafs finished the period on a high similar to the first one with the only difference being the fact that they led this time with the score on 3-2. During the period, Toronto Maple Leafs made 12 goal attempts while Anaheim Ducks made 8 goal
attempts.
The final period saw the Toronto Maple Leafs turn the tables and scoring a couple of goals. Though both teams almost made the same amount of goal attempts but Toronto emerged as the more productive of the sides.
They doubled their lead with a goal in the 6th minute scored by Mikhail Grabovski from a brilliant backhand shot. Both teams continued to attack and fire shots on goal but it was Toronto Maple Leafs who scored once again to seal the match with
the goal scored by Grabovski once again in the 12th minute.
The period and the match ended with the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the match 5-3 in the end with Toronto making 11 goal attempts in the final period and Anaheim Ducks making 10 goal attempts.
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