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Saturday, Oct. 7 7:00pm ET
Leafs earn rare opening-night shutout | |||||
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TORONTO (AP) -- If Toronto is to contend for the Stanley Cup, Curtis Joseph will be the biggest reason why. Joseph, limited by injury to two exhibition games, had 26 saves as the Maple Leafs opened their season with a 2-0 victory Saturday night over the Montreal Canadiens. "It was perfect," Joseph said. "It's important to start the season this way." With Joseph in goal, the Maple Leafs are one of the teams favored to win the Stanley Cup, something Toronto hasn't done since 1967. "We don't want to have to depend on Joseph winning all the hockey games for us, but he's going to have to win some," coach Pat Quinn said. "Clearly he's been a major part of any success we've had." Joseph, recovering from a strained groin, got the 27th shutout of his career. It was Toronto's first opening-night shutout since beating Boston in 1984. "My groin feels pretty good," said Joseph, who strengthened it by using flippers in a pool. "It was just a matter of getting it strong." Former Canadien Jonas Hoglund and Sergei Berezin scored for Toronto, which has won five straight home games against Montreal. It was the 647th meeting of the historic rivals, a series Montreal leads 310-252-84. Montreal's Oleg Petrov appeared to have plenty of room to stuff the puck in with two minutes to go in the first period, but Joseph got a leg down to block the shot. "I'm sure happy he's behind me now," former Canadien Shane Corson said of Joseph. "You can see why he's one of the greatest goalies in the world." Midway through the second period, Joseph stacked the pads and robbed Saku Koivu of a goal with a sprawling stop. "Joseph came up big for them again," Koivu said. Berezin scored with just 3:18 remaining. He converted a give-and-go with Igor Korolev, tapping the puck past Jeff Hackett. The Canadiens, who lost 8-4 to New Jersey on Friday night, went 0-for-9 on the power play and had just five shots in the third period. Hackett, who was pulled in the second period Friday night, stopped 17 of 19 shots. Game notesWendel Clark, who retired in June after spending most of his 15-year career with the Maple Leafs, received a five-minute standing ovation before the game. ... The Maple Leafs also had a video tribute for Canadiens great Maurice Richard, who died earlier this year. ... The Canadiens lost an NHL record 536 man-games to injury last season. ... The 48th Highlanders pipe band continued their opening-night tradition by performing before the game. ... Comedian-actor Mike Myers was in attendance. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Montreal Clubhouse Toronto Clubhouse RECAPS NY Rangers 2 Atlanta 1
Toronto 2 AUDIO/VIDEO   Sergei Berezin scores off a give-and-go with Igor Korolev.avi: 558 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||