The last stop on the Leafs' four game road trip took them to the Honda center to battle the Ducks, which brought out the worst of the fanbase.
The Gardiner Trade was in full force tonight, on both sides of the puck: Beauchemin notched the opening goal on a power play wrist shot from the high slot and ate up 27:09 in TOI. Young Jake Gardiner led all Leafs in ice time, with 25:15, including 2:03 on the PK and 2:39 on the PP. Lupul didn't get a hat trick, as requested, but he did put up 2 assists, earned 19:26 of ice time, and generally had a good game.
Gustavsson has pulled his season save percentage up to .901 by stopping 26 of 28 tonight, and despite not being tested much, he looked good doing it. He was playing deeper in net, wasn't oversliding, and only put a couple dubious rebounds into the middle of the ice. A blocked shot forced him to make this save of the game:
Joey V.v.V Crabb redirected Luke Schenn's shot to beat Jonas Hiller, and gives him more goals than Scott Gomez has points. Colborne also nabbed a second assist on the play, moving him up to 4 points in 5 games.
Bozak played really well, putting up two goals tonight and earning first star. His first goal, on the PP, was set up by a beautiful backwards pass by the pinching John Michael Liles. The second was a quick play to send Kessel's rebound to the back of the net.
It was odd to see, but after coming off IR late today, Grabovski spent time with Rosehill and Dupuis tonight, and then a little PP time with Connolly and MacArthur. Wilson said he expects both Steckel and Gunnarsson to be ready for the next game. This is great news, as Aulie didn't play particularly well, and it will be interesting to see what our forwards look like going in to the next game, now that Bozak has been playing well on the first line.
Your game in six:
As @Steve_Dangle mentioned, the Leafs grabbed their 14th win on the season tonight. Last season, they didn't hit this mark until January 1st, 2011, which coincided with Reimer's debut. It also steals the division lead from Boston, who will play in Toronto on Wednesday. Go Leafs Go.
