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UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Andrew Raycroft tried mightily to get the Toronto Maple Leafs a win in the wake of the news yesterday that No. 1 goaltender Vesa Toskala was lost for at least two games to an injury.
Jason Blake tried too hard to get the Leafs a win in his first visit to the home of his former team, the New York Islanders.
Both men ultimately failed, as the Islanders scored with 9.6 seconds left in overtime to take a 4-3 win in a sloppy game in which both teams were clearly suffering Christmas hangovers. The loss left the Leafs with a 2-2-2 record as their seven-game trip draws to a close with a game in Philadelphia against the Flyers tonight.
Blake spent most of the game trying to put on too much of a show for his old fans, who did not appreciate Blake leaving as a free agent and showed their displeasure by booing him for most of the night.
Mark Bell of the Toronto Maple Leafs crashes the net against Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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- New York Islanders
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Mark Bell
- Jason Blake
- Mike Comrie
- Rick DiPietro
- Wade Dubielewicz
- Bill Guerin
- Andy Hilbert
- Andrew Raycroft
Blake almost won the game late in the third period when he deflected a shot by Mats Sundin that beat goaltender Wade Dubielewicz but hit the crossbar. But as the overtime period wound down, Blake made yet another ill-advised solo act with the puck, which proved to be one too many.
Islanders forward Richard Park took the puck away from Blake to start a rush the other way. Park got a shot on Raycroft, and Mike Comrie put in the rebound to give the Islanders the win.
Raycroft may have served up the rebound but at least he could say the Leafs would never have made it to overtime without him. After Alexander Steen scored his second goal of the game to tie the score 3-3, the Islanders came on hard. But Raycroft held firm, robbing Mike Sillinger twice in succession near the end of regulation to get the Leafs into overtime and save a point.
However, since the Islanders are one of the teams the Leafs are fighting for the eighth and last playoff spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference, the single point was small comfort.
Not that Blake was feeling contrite about his mistake.
"We've only got so many seconds left in overtime," he said of his extended bout of stick-handling. "I was trying to make a play. [Park] made a great play by poke-checking it."
Blake's coach, Paul Maurice, was not impressed.
"He turned the puck over an awful lot tonight," Maurice said. "You can't turn it over there at any point in a game."
Raycroft, whose last start was Nov. 24 when he was pulled in the first period of a 5-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, was predictably rusty at the beginning. The Islanders took a 3-2 lead in the opening 20 minutes on goals by Andy Hilbert, Comrie and Bill Guerin.
"It was my fourth OT loss; it was frustrating," Raycroft said. "I was hoping to at least get to a shootout. All I've done the last month and a half is shootouts [in practice]. I wanted to see if some of that work was going to pay off."
The rest of the Leafs missed a golden chance to come back for the win when Islanders starting goaltender Rick DiPietro was forced out of the game after the first period with a knee injury. Dubielewicz has played so poorly this season that his relief appearance was just his fifth game of the season.
But the Leafs failed to put any sustained pressure on him in the second period and he, too, got better as the game went on.
"The guy made some good saves," Maurice said. "He played well when he had to."
The Leafs blew another lucky break when they were awarded a power play in overtime. But Sundin's shot off the crossbar was the closest they came to scoring.
If Toskala is unable to return from his injury as quickly as the Leafs hope, it will be a heavy blow, considering how well he has played in the past month. Raycroft will start against the Flyers tonight but Maurice hopes Toskala can play Saturday at home against the New York Rangers. Apparently, he was nursing the injury for the last little while.
"I'm not overly concerned unless you're talking more than two, three days from now and it's exactly where it is [now]," Maurice said. "There was no point putting him in a backup role if we were not starting him [against the Islanders]. We'll assess it [today]. If he wakes up and feels great [he] might [play against the Flyers]."
