Leafs finally snap ugly skid
Rookie goalie Scrivens helps steer club to first home win since Feb. 6
Ben Scrivens found himself in front of a microphone Saturday night.
It was a coincidence of sorts, a result of the Maple Leafs’ first win on home in seven weeks.
Scrivens happened to be the onthe-spot hero, backstopping Toronto to a long overdue win on home ice, this one a 4-3 verdict over the Buffalo Sabres.
Afterwards, Scrivens was one of the game’s stars. As he skated off the ice, the Leafs TV crew corralled him for an interview. Suddenly, Scrivens, a Marlie call-up the night before, carried a message from the club to its long suffering fans.
“I’ve been more of a fan the past month or so, but I know the guys in this room, no one was giving up,” said Scrivens, who came off the road Friday night in Rochester with the Marlies, and turned in a 29-save performance to help Toronto break its miserable home ice jinx.
“I don’t know how I ended up being the spokesperson, I just happened to be the guy with the microphone in front of me.”
It didn’t matter who was there to extend thanks to the fans for their support through the years and through this miserable slide. The message would have been the same no matter who — and the important thing was the club finally shed an 11-game losing streak on home ice dating back to Feb. 6.
“To me, all the guys in here deserve all the credit in the world,” Scrivens added. “They’ve been under pressure internally and externally and my hats off to them how they played.”
The losing streak had equalled a mark for home futility dating back to 1987, and those hockey-mad fans probably couldn’t have taken any more than the already excruciating 11-game spell without a win.
On Saturday, Toronto looked like the team that had been on pace for the playoffs before that streak surfaced. They skated like their old selves, crashed the net around the impeccable Ryan Miller, and had the look of a confident club.
That confidence helped lift the team out of a slump that had impacted just about every facet of the Leafs’ game.
“Relief . . .I think more of a relief for the players than the coaches,” Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said.
“They should take the accolades because it’s been tough.” For one night, the massive amount of negativity could be put aside. A win that meant nothing to the standings was worth celebrating all the same for its sheer entertainment value. Toronto, in a 1-1 tie late in the second period, broke loose with a power-play goal from Phil Kessel, and a last-second, crash-the-net goal from John-michael Liles (with 0.7 seconds left on the clock). The Kessel goal was his 37th of the season, a new career high. “Look at how many 37 goal scorers there are in the league and there aren’t a lot,” Carlyle said. “We’ve asked (Kessel) to change some things he’s accustomed to and there hasn’t been any pushback from him. It’d be nice now for Phil to score 40 goals, and that’s not putting pressure on him. It would just be nice. He has a skill set that sets him apart in this league. Not many players can do that.” Carlyle has been asking Kessel to pay equal attention to his defensive game. To underline Kessel’s success, Carlyle had him out in the final minute to protect the 4-3 lead. Joey Crabb, with a short-handed goal in the first period, and Matt Frattin, with another midway through the third, rounded out the scoring for the Leafs. It was just the sixth win for the club in 26 games. Scrivens took control in net and provided the spark on a night when things finally went Toronto’s way. The young goalie also had eight games with the Leafs in December, when Reimer went down. “I learned from the experience I had in Toronto, but I also played for a very good team with the Marlies.”