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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- For the second time in as
many visits, the Toronto Maple Leafs escaped GM Place with a win.
Mats Sundin scored with 1:47 left in overtime as the Maple Leafs
recovered from blowing a four-goal lead in the third period to beat
the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 on Monday.
|  | | Toronto captain Mats Sundin, right, injured his left knee in this collision with Vancouver's Matt Cooke, who received a major penalty and game misconduct for kneeing. |
It was nearly a carbon copy of Toronto's Jan. 17 visit to
Vancouver when the Leafs squandered a 4-1 lead before Steve Thomas
scored in overtime.
"That third period was disgraceful," said Thomas of the latest
near-collapse. "We were very lucky to win the hockey game. I don't
know why we are doing that. We don't seem comfortable with 5-1
leads. When you are up 5-1, you should just cruise it in."
Markus Naslund capped the Canucks outburst with his first goal
in five games as Vancouver rallied. The short-handed goal was
scored with 41 seconds left in regulation.
Ed Jovanovski, Alexander Mogilny and Harold Druken all scored in
the third period. Mogilny also had two assists and has 10 points in
three games.
Vancouver fell six points behind San Jose in the race for the
final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
"I'm very proud of the way the Canucks came back," Vancouver
coach Marc Crawford said. "Any time you come back against any team
that should gain you a lot of respect. We showed that if we stick
to what makes us successful, we have a lot of firepower
ourselves."
Darcy Tucker scored two short-handed goals and Igor Korolev had
three points for Toronto, which won for the fifth time in six
games.
Tucker gave Toronto a 4-1 lead when he scored two goals less
than three minutes apart.
Glenn Healy got a rare start in place of Curtis Joseph and
stopped 33 shots to improve to 7-7-0. He made several key stops
late to give the Leafs a chance to win.
"He's the reason why we won that hockey game tonight," Thomas
said. "He made unbelievable saves towards the end there. There was
a 3-on-1 while we had a power play. That's disgusting and I can't
understand that."
Vancouver was on its second straight power play when Tucker
broke in alone on Garth Snow with 46 seconds left in the second and
beat him with a quick move. Snow had just replaced Felix Potvin in
an apparent attempt to rest the Canucks' top power-play unit.
Tucker added his second with a slap shot 2:08 into the third
that beat Potvin high on the stick side.
Toronto stayed three points ahead of Ottawa in the race for the
top spot in the Northeast Division.
Korolev's goal, 9:50 into the game, extended his point streak to
six games. Korolev, who assisted on both of Tucker's goals, has
three goals and four assists during that span.
"He made a couple of great plays," Tucker said. "On the first
one he waited until I got loose from being hooked and I got the
breakaway and I just got lucky."
Toronto left wing Sergei Berezin had a goal and an assist in his first game after missing 14 contests with a hamstring injury.
Andrew Cassels opened the scoring for Vancouver at 4:08 of the
first. Yanic Perreault and Korolev responded for the Leafs as the
Canucks held a 14-12 shots advantage in a first period filled with
scoring chances for both teams.
Sundin, the Leafs' captain, was helped off the ice with nine
seconds left in the first after a knee-on-knee collision with
Vancouver forward Matt Cooke. Sundin skated off favoring his left
knee and Cooke received a major penalty and a game misconduct for
kneeing.
Sundin returned in the second period to take part in the ensuing
Toronto power play.
Snow came back at 3:02 of the third and took the loss.
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Ottawa 5
Boston 1
Montreal 3
Atlanta 2
Toronto 6
Vancouver 5
San Jose 2
NY Rangers 1
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