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OTTAWA — The great goaltender audition continued last night, under conditions so identical you could have sworn the Toronto Maple Leafs conducted it in a laboratory.
For the second consecutive night, the Leafs surprisingly outskated the Ottawa Senators, leaving the difference up to their defensive mistakes and their goaltender.
Vesa Toskala gave the Leafs better goaltending last night, although they still wound up with an unhappy result — a 3-2 loss — and once again deserved a better fate.
This reinforced the conclusion Leafs general manager John Ferguson and his aides reached at the end of last season: that an NHL playoff berth will come only with better goaltending than Andrew Raycroft provided practically by himself in 2006-07. Hence the arrival of Toskala in a trade with the San Jose Sharks.
So far, the only conclusion that can be drawn from last night's game is that Toskala performed well enough to make his regular-season home debut tomorrow night in front of the fans at the Air Canada Centre against the Montreal Canadiens.
"Yeah, I hope so," said Toskala, who ruefully noted the Leafs deserved much better, even a single point from an overtime loss such as Wednesday's to the Senators, which came from a weaker performance by Raycroft.
"Solid," was Toskala's assessment of his performance, and an accurate one at that. He could have had better, but the Leafs fell victim to too many penalties in the third period as well as some rather odd calls by the referees, who disallowed a goal by Alexander Steen and gave Chad Kilger a late penalty that let the Senators score on a power play to win.
Toskala settled into the game nicely during the second period after starting in much the same manner Raycroft did on Wednesday in Toronto in what turned out to be a so-so performance in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Senators. He gave up a goal on a good shot by Daniel Alfredsson that nevertheless could have been stopped, but after the Leafs fought back in the second period to tie the score, Toskala made some good saves when they were needed.
And that is where the separation will have to come between him and Raycroft, even if Toskala does not turn out to be the next great Finnish goaltender. The problem with Raycroft is not that he is an awful goaltender. It is that he is an ordinary one.
Alfredsson's first goal was a shot Toskala could have snared with his catching glove. When he didn't, it was easy to wonder whether the Leafs were going to discover this season that a goaltending tandem means having two guys who fail to make the big save when it is needed.
Down at the other end of the ice, the Senators' Martin Gerber, no stranger himself to the disapproval of his fans and coaches, was showing what a difference a goaltender can make.
The Leafs outshot the Senators 43-29, but could not get the lead because of Gerber and the disallowed goal. However, as with Raycroft in the home opener, Toskala settled down and showed a marked improvement.
Toskala was the victim of the video judges when what appeared to be a big save on Dany Heatley turned out to be a goal, as it was ruled the puck crossed the goal line, putting the Senators up 2-0.
At that point, it looked like the same old story for the Leafs. A good effort wasted. By this point, Ferguson was in a little bigger game-night rage than usual at the referees, banging the walls of his booth in the press box enough to leave the drywall hanging loose.
But the Leafs kept charging and produced two goals in 32 seconds, including Mats Sundin's long-awaited one that tied him with Darryl Sittler for the most goals as a Leaf, 389.
This time, they did not back off in the third period and this time they got some big saves when they were necessary. Toskala could not get the Leafs through some late penalty troubles, but this was not his fault.
However, the difference here is that Toskala showed enough for his teammates to have some confidence in him, something that has not been part of the Leafs for quite a while.
"Sure, why wouldn't you?" head coach Paul Maurice said of the confidence question. "He made some great saves. He was positionally sound.
"I thought he was easy for our defence to work with. There was some miscommunication in training camp [between Toskala and the defencemen]. I didn't see any of that [last night], and that's a positive."
