Feb 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Kevin McGran
SPORTS REPORTER
It’s the time of year when the Maple Leafs are supposed to be playing desperate hockey.
Exasperated was more like it last night.
Doing their best to hold onto ninth place in the Eastern Conference and keep a playoff spot in sight, the Leafs fired from all directions at Rick DiPietro in a vain effort to break a 2-2 tie.
But the Islanders goaltender-for-life stonewalled Toronto’s shooters, even as the Leafs held a 16-1 shot advantage in the third period.
It was the Islanders who came out ahead, scoring two of three in the shootout, to claim the 3-2 win, earn the two points and move into a virtual ninth-place tie with the Leafs.
“I don’t think we can play any better than we did in the third,” said coach Paul Maurice. “We pushed as hard as we could, came up short.”
Captain Mats Sundin, celebrating his 36th birthday, was the only Leaf shooter to score in the shootout as Alexei Ponikarovsky and Nik Antropov came up short. Frans Nielsen and Viktor Kozlov beat Andrew Raycroft in the tiebreaker for the extra point.
But it really wouldn’t have gotten that far if not for DiPietro, who made 25 consecutive saves after Bates Battaglia scored to tie the game nine minutes into the second period.
“What do you say after a game like that?” said Sundin, shaking his head. “We had all kinds of chances to win the hockey game.
“You’re going to win some games you don’t deserve, and some nights you come off the ice after you lost a hockey game you feel like you should have won. That’s just the National Hockey League. Their goaltender had a great game. We didn’t bear down on the chances we got.
“He made great saves and he gave them a chance to get two points, which they got.”
DiPietro’s thievery was best exemplified over a one-minute span early in the third. Battaglia steamed in on a breakaway, hitting DiPietro’s right pad at 4:30. Tomas Kaberle couldn’t get a wrist shot on a partially open net past DiPietro at 5:03 – very much in the same manner Raycroft robbed Bill Guerin a week ago. Sundin tried a backhander at 5:19, and DiPietro barely got a piece of a Jeff O’Neill wrist shot at 5:30.
“I wish it went in,” Kaberle said of his shot. “He made a big save. He got over there pretty quick. I got it right in the glove. I don’t know if he made the save or I hit his glove. He still got over pretty fast. It could have been the difference.”
Islanders coach Ted Nolan praised his goalie with the 15-year contract.
“Sometimes goaltenders steal some games for you, win some games for you. Tonight, DiPietro stole a game for us,” said Nolan.
Meanwhile, it took the Islanders until the 13-minute mark to get their first shot of the third period. It came from centre ice, on a clear-in for a line change.
“That’s by far the hardest game I’ve had to play this year,” said Raycroft, making his 18th start in a row. “You try and stay focused and we’re pounding away at the other end, putting lots of shots on net. You’ve just got to stay in there and not let the next one in.”
After a tidy five-game winning streak that shot them into contention, the Leafs have now lost three in a row, two of them in extra time. The Leafs are now 3-5 in shootouts this season.
While it was an opportunity lost for the Leafs, there was worse news: Two of the teams they’re chasing, Tampa Bay and Carolina, both won, moving a little bit further away. Montreal, however, lost.
The Leafs and Islanders are two points behind the struggling Canadiens, each with a game in hand.
“We came in two points out of the playoffs and we’re still two points out of the playoffs,” said Maurice. “You have to manage your highs and lows. We had a good run there, feeling good about ourselves. Most nights I think we’ve performed better the last few games than the final results tell us.”
Pavel Kubina opened the scoring on the power play for Toronto, his fifth goal of the year, in the first period. Miroslav Satan and Trent Hunter scored second-period goals for the Islanders
Life , A Small Spark Between Two Eternities 