Red-hot Eagle saves Leafs
LEAFS 3 CANADIENS 2 Late Habs rally goes nowhere as Belfour sparkles in Toronto victory
MONTREAL— This time last week, the Maple Leafs assembled for a rare Sunday morning practice where Pat Quinn’s primary task was, in his words, convincing his players that they weren’t “ horses-t.”
Give Quinn the Dr. Phil award for making his charges feel worthy. The same team that looked very much like it could start the season winless in six games gained seven of a possible eight points in a difficult week, capped by last night’s 3- 2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
“Tonight was tough,” Quinn said. “ It was a really hard hockey game.”
That their performance came at the end of a daunting week made the effort that much more impressive. The Leafs arrived in Montreal at 2: 30 a. m., a bruised and battered group, and were facing a rested Canadiens team that had dominated them a week before. The Leafs still had all sorts of problems with their defensive zone coverage, but Ed Belfour was spectacular in bailing them out with 29 saves, 14 of them in the third period alone.
“ I think our plan to tire them out in our own zone in the third period kind of worked a little bit,” Quinn quipped.
“But they battled hard and they stuck with it all night long and they did a great job and three or four guys had terrific nights.” Quinn singled out Belfour, naturally, and said that Eric Lindros, Clarke Wilm and Alexander Steen received high marks for their play. Lindros gets booed every time he touches the puck in these parts and he gave the locals lots of opportunities to vent their spleens. He did a good job of controlling the puck through the game and scored on both his shots, including the game- winner with 7: 44 remaining.
Jason Allison also turned in another strong effort and contributed a goal for the Leafs, who defeated a Northeast Division team for the first time this season. But the Leafs would have likely blown yet another lead had it not been for Belfour, who turned in his second straight strong outing after a couple of suspect performances.
That makes three straight topshelf netminding jobs — one chipped in by backup Mikael Tellqvist — for a team that is going to need lots of them this season.
Belfour thrives on lots of work, but a 40- year- old body might not be as willing and able as he’d like it to be. Look for Tellqvist to get more work than Belfour’s backups in the past, largely because the Leafs can depend on him to deliver the occasional victory. One noticeable improvement in Belfour from his early- season struggles is his ability to make saves without letting out too many juicy rebounds.
“ With the new rules, guys are a lot more free in front of the net and you have to make sure you cover rebounds as soon as you can,” Belfour said, “ because they get a second whack at it usually, too.” The Leafs have four days off and unlike last week, earned a day off today. Tomorrow, they host their annual golf tournament, meaning they’ll have just two days between games to work on their defensive zone coverage. The good news is the power play, which struggled early, was 2 for 4, making it 9 for 20 in its past two games. Lindros’s goal in the second period was Toronto’s league- leading 15th of the season with the man advantage. As the Leafs climb their way back up the Eastern Conference, they do so in the knowledge that they could be 6- 0 right now. In the first three games of the season, they blew third- period leads.
“ We’re still not anywhere close to where we’re going to have to be to be a contending club,” Quinn said. “ I think we’re going to be able to score goals and if we can shore up and be better in our own end, I think we’ll get some good results.”