Tampa Bay Lightning burns Toronto Maple Leafs, Roloson shutouts Leafs 2-0 – NHL Updates
An amazing game was played on Tuesday night between Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs in Tampa Bay, as Lightning shutout Toronto by 2-0 in front of its fans.
It wasn’t just the Lightning crowd that had been cheering its home team, but a fierce look could be seen in the eyes of the players that made the game so intense.
They came in for a victory and they got a lot more than that.
"I've forgotten what the score was", said Tampa’s goalie, Dwayne Roloson. "I know we won, and that's all that matters to me".
Dwayne Roloson shutout Leafs to win 2-0, making 26 saves to grab his third shutout in the last 10 games. Something more impressive is that according to Roloson, he’s not concerned about shutouts but only about the win and having streak of 5 consecutive wins
is proof of that attitude.
For many fans, it was not shocking news, and you can’t blame them, considering Toronto’s position this year.
Toronto stands12th in the Eastern Conference, ahead of Ottawa Senators by just 1 point. Melting the ice even further, Leafs has lost 3 consecutive matches in the last few days.
Going into the match, Toronto was hoping for a victory to head into the All Star weekend so that it had something to show, but unfortunately the bad losing streak caused them disappointment, going into Christmas and now the All Star game.
“We want to go into the break on a high note”, said Toronto Maple Leafs’ forward, Tim Brent.
That is all the problems that Leafs is having right now. Toronto’s forward, Nikolai Kulemin, got into a one sided fight on Monday night with Tampa’s Tim Gleason. Maple Leafs wanted to avenge this match for their friend, but just weren’t able to.
On the other hand, some critics blame Leafs’ rookie goalie, James Reimer, for not being able to perform up to expectations.
Riemer overall made 29 saves, making more than his counterpart in Tampa Bay. Other critics slam that accusation by reminding people of the 15 out of 17 saves James Reimer made in the opening 20 minutes, a pair of which were breakaways by Martin St. Louis.
Having not made it to the finals last season, Tampa Bay has really improved its game and it was very hard for Toronto to compete with the reformed Lightning team.
Maple Leafs was having a rough time that night, having almost as many penalties as shots, 3 penalties and 4 shots, and not having a chance at a shot during the second half of the period.
Tampa Bay’s coach, Guy Boucher, seemed happy about his team’s performance. When asked he said, "We're very happy with what's going on with our goaltenders”.
Having NHL leading scorer, Steven Stamkos, is another plus point which Tampa Bay Lightning can be proud of.
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