Rapid-fire turnaround
Maple Leafs 6 Capitals 4 Quick scoring burst propels the Leafs Caps’ rookie star Ovechkin pots a pair
It is the reality of the NHL that two minutes of brilliant offence can cover up for a myriad of transgressions. So it was last night, as the Maple Leafs, although the better team on the ice, made enough mistakes and had enough flat moments that they could easily have coughed up a second consecutive loss to the surprising Washington Capitals.
Instead, Toronto ripped three goals past Caps Olie Kolzig in one minute and 51 seconds early in the second period to chase the netminder from the game and chase away their own demons while breaking up a 2- 2 tie.
Alexei Ponikarovsky, Bryan McCabe and Mats Sundin scored in rapid succession en route to what ended as a 6- 4 Toronto victory. The Leafs lost to the Capitals, 5- 4, at Washington on Sunday.
It was a different Leafs lineup as coach Pat Quinn juggled the lines in an effort to awaken his offence. The six goals, from six different scorers, was evidence of the success of the tinkering, although it did little to help Toronto on the defensive side of the ledger. The Leafs gave up several oddman rushes through the course of the night and the 15 shots yielded in the third period did not signify a team clamping down. Toronto did have to make some adjustments on the blue line as well with Aki Berg sitting out with a knee sprain. The Leafs called up prospect Carlo Colaiacovo for his first game of the season and he responded with his first NHL goal.
Jeff O’Neill, with his fourth in three games, and Chad Kilger had the other Toronto markers.
In the first period, it wasn’t so much that the visitors toyed with their hosts, but the Leafs looked like they were there only as a prop, a foil to the superior Caps. It was an odd reversal considering it is the Leafs that boast the big- name talent while they Caps are mostly anonymous. The expectation was that the
“ That was unbelievable to me, a day off and a week’s bonus. I had an offer from the Globe, but I didn’t take it. I was covering junior hockey and I ran into Honderich, who was covering the Kitchener Dutchmen.
“ An editor, name of Jim Kingsbury, asked me if there were any experienced reporters who might be interested in working at the Star. He said he’d heard the name Beland Honderich recommended and could I recommend him.
“ I approached Bee, but he said, ‘ I don’t want to leave Kitchener.’ I told him to give it some thought. Next time I was back in Kitchener, he’d had some kind of run-in with his paper and asked if the position at the Star were still open.
“ He called and took the job. Can you imagine the difference, in the paper, in his family, if he hadn’t?” Dunnell wondered.
Milt told one other story about his old friend, how Honderich, as maybe a 15- year- old, worked as a water boy on a railroad repair and construction gang.
“ Horse race betting was popular in those days and the train crews liked to bet,” Dunnell said. “ Bee’s crew would pick up the bets, up and down the line, and he would drop the money with the bookie in Strathroy. The next day they’d pick up the winnings and Bee would distribute them down the line.
“ He soon noticed they never brought back as much money as they picked up and one day he decided to go into business for himself, become a bookmaker. So the one day he gets into the business, everyone hits the same winner and he had to pay off.
“ He didn’t have the money to pay off and didn’t know what to do. He thought they might kill him.
‘‘ So he told the station master and the station master said he would pay off all the bets, but Bee had to work the rest of the summer for no wages, just to pay him off. “Everyone always said Bee never gambled, but that’s not true. One day he did,” Dunnell remembered, “ and then he became a non- gambler.”