Toronto Maple Leafs dominate New York Rangers, 4-2 in home opener -NHL Match Update
Even though Toronto did not have their main goalie, James Reimer, in net, Jonas Gustavsson performed equally as well by blocked 28 of 30 shots as the Maple Leafs dominated the New York Rangers, 4-2, in their first home game of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season at a sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
A crowd of over 18,000 showed up to support their home team and witness their first regular season game, but were disappointed as an all-star line-up consisting of Brad Richards, Henrik Lundqvist and Ryan Callahan did not have any control throughout the 60 minute contest.
"We did a lot of good things. It was a good team effort", Leafs coach, Ron Wilson, said. "The one shot, that was a shot the Monster (Gustavsson) should've had -- then he stopped some ones that he shouldn't have.
Dan Girardi put New York ahead 6:23 into the opening period with his first of the season off an assist by Marian Gaborik. Matthew Lombardi followed to equalise it 1:20 into the second period of regulation with his second of the season while his teammates took over in the third.
Joffrey Lupul, Clarke MacArthur and Mike Brown scored three straight on the veteran New York goalie, which ultimately put Toronto up by three. New York scrambled to score but Gustavsson was just too much for them to handle.
"Saves like that always feel good", Gustavsson said. "It's not something you work on, it's more just reacting out there. Sometimes you stop them and sometimes you don't, but I got a chance to stop that one”.
Michael Del Zotto scored the games’ last on a breakaway after turning the possession of the puck over to New York for his first of the season with less than five-minutes remaining in the third.
Rangers have the next five contests at home while the Maple Leafs will make a trip back to Toronto in order to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, October 29.
It will certainly be interesting to see if the New York Rangers are able to bounce back in their upcoming home games to turn the record around.
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