Toronto Maple Leafs end eight-game skid with comeback win over Nashville Predators
Whenever a team in the National Hockey League goes on a multi-game losing streak, long faces are a common sight in the dressing room. But things can change in an instant in the NHL, and
the Toronto Maple Leafs’ frowns became smiles as they notched a come-from-behind 5-4 victory on Tuesday 16 November over the Nashville Predators that ended an eight-game losing streak.
How it happened
Despite Toronto having home-ice advantage, it was the Predators who took an early lead over the Leafs. J-P Dumont opened the scoring at 8:13 of the first period with his third goal of
the season. Jordin Tootoo then beat J-S Giguere with a snap shot at 11:33, while Martin Erat got his first goal of the season 10 seconds later. The home team finally got on the board when Luke Schenn tallied at 19:30.
Nashville began the second period with a short-handed goal from Marcel Goc at 4:41. After that, the Maple Leafs took control of the game and rattled off four unanswered goals, all of which
were scored with the man advantage. Toronto’s rally began when Kris Versteeg fired a wrist shot past Pekka Rinne at 6:22. Rookie Nazem Kadri earned his first career NHL point on the goal. Versteeg added a second goal at 7:21, and Mikhail Grabovski notched
his fourth goal of the 2010-11 campaign at 14:21. Nikolai Kulemin capped the Leafs’ rally when he scored a goal at 16:44.
There was no further scoring in the third period, and the Maple Leafs’ second-period rally proved to be the difference-maker for them, as they hung onto a one-goal lead to win the game.
What they’re saying
The Leafs were happy to finally end their eight-game losing streak, and head coach Ron Wilson was just as happy. However, he admitted that the result of the game was strange.
“Strange game to say the least,” Wilson told reporters after the game. “I’m glad we won. It’s one of those kinds of games that when you look back on it, hopefully it puts an abrupt stop
to the slide we’ve been in. We can use it for momentum.”
Preds head coach Barry Trotz said that the fact that his team took too many penalties was what led the Leafs to their big comeback.
“We gave them momentum by taking penalty after penalty after penalty,” Trotz said. “When are we going to learn? You have a team down and out, you have them on the floor gasping for air,
and you let them off the mat. We stopped working, we stopped skating and therefore, you take penalties. We deserved exactly what we got in the end.”
Nashville will continue their road trip with a game against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday 18 November. Toronto returns to action on the same day when they host the struggling New
Jersey Devils.
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