TORONTO STARTS TO PULL AWAY

The Dallas Stars hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight desperately seeking the final Wild Card spot in the western conference.   LA (86 pts), Nashville (84) , Dallas (83) and Las Vegas (82) all hold legitimate shots.  The Stars have 7 wins in their last 9 games.  You have got to think the motivation is on high.

Toronto’s goals were to shake off giving up that 5-1 lead to Florida, helping Auston Mathews make history by scoring his franchise record 55^th goal and staying ahead of Boston and Tampa Bay to secure home ice in the first round.

The very dramatically coloured Dallas Stars came out hard to the pleasure of a full house and maintained sustaining pressure on the visitors including a goal mouth crash that had Leafs nation concerned for the well being of Jack Cambell.  In a turn around attack, William Nylander put in his 28^th with help from Ilya Mikaev to take the lead.  In the lead up to the first round of the playoffs, Coach Keefe continued to experiment with his d-pairs, starting Reilly/Lyubushkin, followed by Muzzin/Broadie and then Giordano matched with Holl.  Not sure who was on for Tyler Seguin’s 21^st on an own zone misplay to tie things up.

Toronto started the second with a 1 and then 2 man advantage.  His mates kept feeding Mathews in a desperate attempt to have him break the Leaf record 54 goal barrier.  The Leafs continued to pepper the Dallas net especially with their top 3 lines.  We didn’t see much of the Blackwell/Abruzezze/Simmonds trioka.  Dallas goalie Scott Wedgewood was stoic throughout the Leafs onslaught and had made 29 saves after two.  Finally, on another Leafs power play, Giordano laid a nice one to # 34 and he pounded in a howitzer off the right side boards to put all the hype to rest.  #55 and the single season Toronto record for goals in one season – his team was up 2 to 1 after two.

One of the candidates to fill the out the Toronto defence core at the trade deadline was John Klingberg.  Well, he thanked the Leafs for not pulling that particular trigger by tying it up at twos four minutes into the third.  That seemed to give the home team a tremendous boost as both teams went back and forth until Morgan Reilly popped his 10^th off another nice feed from Mitchell Marner.  Stars’ leading scorer Joe Pavelski bunted in a perfect feed from Ryan Suter to send the game to overtime.  As you might suspect, 55 goal scorer Auston Mathews became a 56 goal scorer to send the Leafs home with a damn fine road show record and a 5 point lead on their nearest pursuers.

HOPPER NOTES:  Not sure if I agree with sitting out Jason Spezza, he who had a fine mid-career showing with the Stars…WOW, get out the sunglasses for those Dallas firefighter uni’s…maybe showing my (old) age again, but do we really need a pre-game and first intermission analysis on betting ?  I know that industry has become a player in the whole sports scene and the revenue they bring to the league and media is significant, but c’mon…I see Muzzin as a 3LD, not Giordano…don’t tell anyone, but my preferred route would be to form up at Nathan Phillips Square and then head south from Old City Hall…wouldn’t you think that the Raptors mascot would let Grimace win at least once ?….enjoy opening day everyone !  Cheers….