Toronto Maple Leafs annihilate Tampa Bay Lightning 7-1 -NHL Match Update
Tampa Bay was stunned as the Toronto Maple Leafs cruised to an easy, 7-1, victory over the Lightning on Tuesday night, November 22, 2011, at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, United States.
The Lightning scrambled to shift between goaltenders, but as the Maple Leafs were shooting with a high level of accuracy, neither Mathieu Garon nor Dwayne Roloson made any difference.
Roloson fell short on six of 21 attempts on his net by Toronto, which forced the Tampa Bay management to recall him and send Garon out, who faced the last five shots and let one through.
"We're not as consistent as we want to be," Tampa Bay captain, Vincent Lecavalier, said. "In this league, to be a playoff team, you've got to be consistent. We've got to be better at it."
Clarke MacArthur scored the opening goal only 41 seconds into the first period of regulation, signalling that the Toronto Maple Leafs came across the country with one thing on their mind, which was to grab the two points.
Vincent Lecavalier followed with the equaliser nearly midway through on their second consecutive power play opportunity as Jake Gardiner was booked for hooking.
Tim Connolly and Tyler Bozak fired off two straight for the Maple Leafs on power play advantages of their own less than two minutes apart which silenced the crowd after Lecavalier had made the levelling shot.
"There were some moments, but we pretty much negated their forecheck for the most part," Toronto coach, Ron Wilson, said. "And we wanted to push the pace and I thought we were really effective doing it."
Joe Colborne potted his first of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season at the 17:45 mark of the second period while Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul and Joey Crabb added three more straight in the third period to secure the match with a commanding
difference in the score.
"Obviously, scoring the first goal on the first shift got us in the right frame of mind," Wilson added.
The Maple Leafs have two more on the road, the next being against the Dallas Stars on Friday, while Tampa Bay will be travelling within the state of Florida to face the Panthers on the same day.
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