With Toronto protecting a 3-1 lead early in the third period, Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer made a nice save on a point blank shot from Patrick Sharp to keep the two-goal lead.
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Brad Boyes has waited a long time for his first goal with the Maple Leafs. This is great news for us fans as we’ve seen Rielly get progressively better for the Leafs over time, but seems to have progressed to an entirely different level of skill and confidence in the early goings of this season. It resulted in a 5-1 loss and the firing of Randy Carlyle.
“Lupes, he’s been working really hard this year, I think, and he’s been doing a lot of good things”, Reimer said.
Points against teams the Jets should beat are important, and there’s nothing fresh about that statement – for two reasons.
“I still thought with the group of players on the ice you’ve got to know what’s going on on the clock. Have faith in your game”. Like Lupul, they’re not coveted assets at this point in their careers and may find themselves out of the league altogether by season’s end.
The encouraging signs included a second decent 60 minutes from Reimer while a winless Jonathan Bernier recovers from injury and the team as a whole mostly sticking with Mike Babcock’s program. His performance was below average, the team panicked and the earth fell out from under them, a 2-12 finish (not all Reimer’s fault) to tumble out of the playoff picture.
If Reimer can’t get the job done, Antoine Bibeau might get a chance. He’s been backing up Reimer since Bernier went down.
The Blackhawks are stumbling a bit on their own account, as they’re now 7-5-1 and have dropped three of their last four games.
Alexander Burmistrov scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. Oduya’s clearing attempt got cut off by defenseman Morgan Rielly, who fired the puck on net through traffic. There’s little anyone can do to stop the six-foot-five, 260-pound Byfuglien when he muscles himself that way. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau and Leo Komarov scored for Toronto.
Again, though, another bugaboo.
The Jets head into Toronto on Wednesday night looking to shake off a loss while the Buds look for back to back victories after earning a big win against the Stars on Monday.
That lasted 47 seconds when Tobias Enstrom directed a puck on net that hit a Leaf and went right to an open Mark Scheifele.
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PA Parenteau evened the score on the power play after Burmistrov took a holding penalty, but just 37 seconds later Mark Scheifele found the back of the net to restore the lead for the Jets. The puck banked in off Komarov’s skate and in. It was his fifth of the season. With defenceman Frank Corrado’s two-week conditioning stint with the Marlies up, he will have to be activated. He should be recalled… Little picked up the second assist.
