Leafs on a losing streak!

Toronto Maple Leafs lose again. Today they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in a shootout. Here is an article from The Toronto Star.

The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a come-from-behind win that would make Liberal Leader Stephane Dion proud, relying on captain Saku Koivu to score twice in the third to rally his team to a 4-3 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kevin McGran reports.

The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a come-from-behind win that would make Liberal Leader Stephane Dion proud, relying on captain Saku Koivu to score twice in the third to rally his team to a 4-3 shootout win.

The Leafs, who had a 3-1 lead and perhaps like Michael Ignatieff expected better, came away with a point. But they have won only two of their last nine games.

The Canadiens, who lost to Carolina on Thursday, hadn’t lost two in a row all season and weren’t about to begin now.

When Sheldon Souray scored in the shootout and Kyle Wellwood didn’t, it was all over. The Leafs are now 2-3 this season in shootout situations.

A city gripped by Liberal poliltics earlier in the day was on the edge of its seat when the struggling Leafs faced off against the surging Canadiens.

Leaf head coach Paul Maurice had been saying all week that if his team was to break out of its scoring slump – and its losing ways -- it would start with defence. Offence, he said, begins with defence.

He wasn’t kidding.

Rookie defenceman Ian White scored the game’s first goal. The just-inserted defenceman Brendan Bell was instrumental setting up Mats Sundin for a 2-0 first period lead.

And the ever offensive-minded tandem of Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle chipped in with assists for the Leafs’ third goal.

Wellwood slapped home a rebound at 2:21 of the third with Alex Kovalev off for hooking as the Leafs sudden inability to score with the man advantage ended.

The power play had gone 0-for-17 over two-plus games while the Leafs lost three in a row. It was a relief for Wellwood, who counted his sixth goal, and first point in four games.

Alexander Perezhogin scored for Montreal, which had only itself to blame in taking needless penalties. The game proved costly to the Canadiens. Defenceman Craig Rivet injured his arm and didn’t play the third period.

Koivu outhustled Mike Peca on a faceoff, powering by the Leaf defensive stalwart to make it 3-2 at 11:17 of the third, setting up an action-packed finish that had fans chanting, the house rocking and the Leafs back on their heels.

White took one of those delay-of-game calls when his clearing effort went over the glass into the crowd at 14:46 and the noise was deafening. It got even louder when Koivu deflected Alex Kovalev’s shot for a power play goal to tie the game at 15:24.

Andrew Raycroft put on a solid performance in the Toronto net, picking up his first win in four games. Cristobal Huet, the league’s hottest goalie, looked uncomfortable in net to start the game, but settled down in the second period.

The difference for the Leafs were some of the little things: good pinching decisions by defencemen, quick passes out of their own zone, and the tall men like Nik Antropov and Hal Gill holding territory.

Montreal played a physical game, hammering Sundin, Darcy Tucker and Jeff O’Neill on numerous occasions. There were times when both sides seemed ready to come to blows. Montreal defenceman Francois Bouillon dropped the gloves in the first to start fighting Tucker, who thought better of a fight. Tucker, oddly enough, ended up with the extra two minutes, for charging, near the end of the first period.