Box Score | War On Ice

Toronto had several members of its organization hitting milestones tonight, as Mike Babcock coached his 1000th game, Dion Phaneuf played his 800th game, Joffrey Lupul played his 700th, and Nazem Kadri played his 300th. The team also honoured Darryl Sittler for his record-setting 10-point night prior to the game in a rather lengthy ceremony that saw most of the old members of the team from that night trotted out.

The Leafs started the game out looking strong, but Matt Hunwick took a delay-of-game penalty just 4 minutes into the contest for flipping the puck over the glass from his own end, sending the Devils to the power play. Jacob Josefson took a shot from the top of the circle with a screen set in front of James Reimer, who only managed to get the tip of his glove on the shot, leaving the Leafs trailing early.

Later, while it was the Leafs who were on the power play, Shawn Matthias did some great work defending as he chased a shorthanded 2-on-1 back to his own zone, and wound up covering the extra man just well enough to prevent a shot and turn the play the other way. After that great work, the team gained the Devils' zone quickly, and Tyler Bozak fed Matthias a perfect pass in front for an easy tip-in goal.

Just minutes later, Devils' winger Bobby Farnham was penalized for taking liberties with Reimer after the whistle, and the Leafs were back to the power play, where Bozak came within centimetres of giving the Leafs the lead. With Alex Kincaid having made the initial save, Bozak drifted in from the hash marks to put it in the open net, only to have it dribble over his stick due to the stick check of Adam Larsson.

Although earlier on in the period the Leafs had opened up a 12-5 lead on the shot clock, the Devils pushed back towards the end of the first frame to bring the totals to 14-11 in favour of the Leafs.

The Leafs began the second period by putting a lot of pressure on the Devils' D and good perimeter puck movement, which helped them to spend a lot more time in the Devils' zone than in their own. Eventually, Nazem Kadri drew a penalty on a great chance as he crashed through the crease looking for a rebound, and the Leafs' sad, sad power play got another chance.

Naturally, after Kadri fell trying to corral a puck, Lee Stempniak took off down the ice on a shorthanded 2-on-1 that left Dion Phaneuf to defend. Stempniak fired a pass across to Stephen Gionta, who fired it home, only to have the play blown dead on a late offside call. The Leafs dodged a bullet, only to step into another, as Matthias took a terrible penalty in the neutral zone to nullify the power play and send the Leafs back to the penalty kill.

The remainder of the second progressed relatively uneventfully, with chances at both ends and a couple of other power plays - the Devils hit the post once and Lupul had a tipped shot that looked good get tipped out of the rink. Kadri was physical, laying out several Devils, as was Roman Polak, who also managed to catch a guy on a breakaway and tie him up without taking a penalty. The Leafs managed to take their 5th minor penalty of the game with just over 20 seconds to go in the period, but the end of 40, the score was still 1-1.

NHL.tv cut out on me at the end of the second and didn't come back online until part way through the third, so if you haven't already read my tirades on Twitter, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

Anyway, it came back just in time for me to see the replay of Babcock's goaltender interference challenge on New Jersey's go-ahead goal. My two cents is that the refs made the right call in saying that Stempniak did not interfere with Reimer, and that David Schlemko's goal was a good one.

The Leafs' power play again very nearly clicked, as Leo Komarov fed Dion Phaneuf in the slot, but the captain had the puck roll off his blade before he could tuck it home. Racing to the other end, the Devils forced Reimer to make a great save as a pass back to the trailing rush man, but Reimer read the play perfectly.

Michael Grabner took a very careless tripping penalty with under 7 minutes left in regulation, but the penalty kill was sharp. That said, it wasn't over for long before Jordan Tootoo got glorious great chance in the slot, which Reimer turned away with an excellent reflex save.

Babcock pulled the goalie with 2:30 left in the game, and after Tyler Bozak won his 22nd draw of the night (!), he slid into the slot, took a great pass from Peter Holland, and absolutely lined a shot into the back of the net to tie the game with just over two minutes to go. It was on to overtime.

Both teams had the usual series of wild chances, but easily the funniest was Joseph Blandisi (who had his whole family in attendance) taking a great, clean breakaway pass, turning towards the Leafs' net, and then totally tripping himself and falling down.

This contest took until the shootout to be decided, which saw P.A. Parenteau score for the Leafs and Reimer shut the door on all three New Jersey shooters.

Notes on individual players:

- Tyler Bozak had a great game. He was 80% on the draw, had 3 shots, the game-tying goal, and a great assist on the Leafs' first one.

- James Reimer has been outstanding lately. He allowed 2 goals on 34 shots, and was stone cold in the shootout. His positioning and footwork in the crease (especially moving laterally) are much better this year.

- Nazem Kadri also had a good night. He absolutely trucked about 4-5 players, shared the shot lead for the team, had several good chances to score, and his line generally dominated play.

- Leo Komarov had a good night tonight for most of the same reasons listed for Kadri.

- Shawn Matthias protects the puck so well, and gets around the ice quite quickly for a big man. He worked hard on the backcheck on a few occasions, scored a goal, and I generally liked his game, but he had a terrible penalty and his line didn't fare very well in terms of 5v5 Corsi +/-.

- Morgan Rielly was great tonight but seemed to lose the handle on a few pucks when he got opportunities. He tied Kadri to lead the Leafs with 5 shots, and covered nicely for Matt Hunwick on several occasions.

- P.A. Parenteau had the shootout winner but also skated the puck well through the neutral zone tonight. He should generate some interest come deadline time.