Canes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, beat Leafs 3-2 in overtime

On Tuesday night, it looked like Vesa Toskala was headed for another shutout victory. In 85 seconds, it all came crashing down. Depending on who you root for, either (a) Carolina snatched victory from the jaws of defeat or (2) Toronto gave the game away, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. No matter how you call it, Carolina won 3-2. They made a very late rally to force overtime, then got the winner with under a minute to play in the extra frame.

Early in the game, Carolina was buzzing. In the first minute, they had several shots including a quality chance in the first seven seconds. Toskala stood his ground and rebuffed every turn by the Canes.

In the first period, Carolina had three power plays including about a minute of five-on-three, but they couldn't convert. They lobbed 13 shots at the Finn, but he had a rejoinder for every one of them. It looked like "one of those nights".

It started to look even more like "one of those nights" when the Leafs scored first at 17:50 of the first. Just seconds after the five-on-three expired, Boyd Devereaux -- who was the second man in the box -- buried the rebound from a Tomas Kaberle shot. Chad Kilger got the secondary helper on the even strength goal.

The second period, which has been anathema to the Canes, was pretty bad. Carolina could only muster four shots in the middle stanza, could never mount any pressure, and they put themselves in the box a few times. The last of these is what helped give the dreaded Leafs the 2-0 lead. After Darcy Tucker forced Trevor Letowski to cough up the puck deep in the Carolina end, Kaberle tucked it in from just off the left post. The power play goal was unassisted.

Both teams played full throttle in the third. Toronto had 15 shots to Carolina's 16. Both teams committed two penalties. Neither could convert.

As the final minutes wound down, it looked like a sure thing shutout win for Toskala. In my mind, I had him as the first star, Kaberle as the second and Boyd Devereaux as the third. All that changed quite drastically.

Just as Johnny Crackers was about to leave the ice for an extra attacker, Cory Stillman broke the shutout at 18:35, assisted by Frantisek Kaberle and Justin Williams.

With the goal scored, Peter Laviolette pulled his goaltender for an extra attacker with about 50 seconds left. Shortly thereafter, Alex Ponikarovsky had a chance to shoot at the empty net from the Carolina blue line, but he hesitated too much and Cory Stillman took the puck away. This would be the play of the game. Stillman gets mad credit for taking the puck away, and Ponikarovsky gets the "goat" treatment for not salting it away.

Ray Whitney found the back of the net at 19:33 to tie the game and send what was left of the crowd into a frenzy. Erik Cole and Justin Williams Cory Stillman assisted.

The game went to overtime, which hasn't been kind to either squad this season. Late in the bonus frame, Carolina got the benefit of one marginal call and then got another obvious penalty, affording them a rare five-on-three in overtime. The Leafs killed off the front end, and it felt like the game was destined for shootout. Eric Staal, however, had different plans.

At 4:27 of the overtime, Staal fired a shot from the blue line that found the net. Originally, they gave credit to Scott Walker for a re-direction at the goalmouth. Later, they changed it to Staal, saying that the redirection was off Pavel Kubina's stick. Apparently, they've changed it back to Walker. Scott Walker got the game winning power play goal with the helpers going to Eric Staal and Erik Cole.

Vesa Toskala was 85 seconds away from his second shutout in the last three games. 85 seconds. Just like *that*, he lost the game and plummeted from the game's first star to an "also ran".

The "official" three stars went to Ray Whitney (third), Cory Stillman (second) and Scott Walker (first). The Rogers/Sportsnet three stars went to Ray Whitney (third), Hal Gill (second) and Cory Stillman (first) don't really see it that way. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Tomas Kaberle, TOR --- 1 goal, 1 assist
SECOND STAR Erik Cole, CAR --- 2 assists, 4 hits
FIRST STAR Cory Stillman, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 takeaways

Stillman injured his knee on Saturday, and the initial prognosis was that he would be out until after Christmas. Turned out he didn't miss a single game. If his knee was bothering him, it sure didn't show. His late goal got the team going, then his takeaway from Ponikarovsky was probably the play of the game.

Who did miss the game, though, were Rod Brind'Amour and Andrew Ladd. Both have the flu.

For the first time since November 10th and 12th, Carolina has won consecutive games. It feels good. They will put their two game win streak on the line on Thursday in South Florida against the Kitties.

The Kaberle incident

I am completely disgusted by what occurred in New Jersey last night. Just barely a week after the "incident" in Buffalo, we see another example of what unfortunately happens when the instigator rule is in place. A useless goon of a player takes out a star player with a late and dirty hit. The on-ice officials miss the call, the players can't take the law into their own hands, and the offending player gets off scot free.

Last week, Buffalo's Chris Drury was taken out by a hit from Ottawa's Chris Neil that was high, late, unnecessary and dirty. That escalated into a full scale brawl. The brawling didn't occur in New Jersey, but we saw a carbon copy of the incident that precipitated it. The talentless goon, played by New Jersey's Cam Janssen made a late, high, unnecessary and dirty hit on a star player, played by Toronto's Tomas Kaberle. Janssen is nothing more than an agitator and Kaberle is one of the best defensemen in the League and arguably Toronto's best player.

I won't detail the hit. Damien Cox of the Toronto Star has a ... um... strongly worded piece about the hit. I recommend reading that. Here's the footage:

No penalty was called on the play. I don't get that. It looks like Janssen left his feet. That could be charging. Because of the way Kaberle was spun around and slammed face first into the boards, this could be boarding. This could be elbowing. This could be roughing. Because Kaberle was clearly not in possession of the puck, this could be interference. No call was made.

When Kaberle went down, play was immediately stopped and Janssen stood there anticipating a confrontation. The Leafs players never stood up. Perhaps they were afraid of the instigator rule. Perhaps they didn't want another Wrestlemania '07. Perhaps they were more concerned about Tomas' health than in kicking Janssen's ass. Neither Darcy Tucker nor Wade Belak were in the lineup, and maybe that also had something to do with it.

By the time it was all said and done, Toronto won the game in a shootout. Kaberle was held overnight in a hospital and is being examined. Clownshoes Campbell will investigate the tape today to determine Janssen's fate.

I've written about this before, and I'll say it again. I think the NHL needs to take a stance against blows to the head. Any blow to the head should be penalized, followed by a fine and/or suspension. This makes at least a half dozen times this season where a player has been knocked out by a blow to the head and carried off on a stretcher. In each case, the hit was late and of very very questionable legality. I would argue that this one had questionable intent. Pittsburgh's Colby Armstrong wasn't trying to hurt Carolina's Trevor Letowski back in October. Edmonton's Raffi Torres wasn't trying to kill Detroit's Jason Williams back in November. Calgary's Robyn Regehr didn't attempt to knock Montréal's Aaron Downey out (although he probably enjoyed it). There have been a few others, and then the incident in Buffalo last week.
Chris Neil probably was trying to hurt Chris Drury with his late and high hit. Cam Janssen had no business being that aggressive in that situation, so I have to think that he may have been head hunting.

Cam Janssen didn't play at all after that incident, which occurred late in the second. Was he being punished, or is Claude Julien too chickenshit to send his player out there to face the music? Methinks the latter.

On the incident, I have a few cheers and jeers to hand out:

CHEERS:

Colin White, NJD. Throughout the entire thing, he was hovering around, showing concern. He also gave a hand to the steet-shoed folks coming on the ice to tend to the injured player.

Darcy Tucker, TOR. Jeez, this pains me to compliment Tucker. Dressed in his civvies, he approached the Devils bench from the tunnel to "have a word" with Janssen. Nobody would do it on the ice, so he figured he may as well.

JEERS:

Referees Kelly Sutherland and Brad Watson. No penalty was called when at least three different penalties could have been.

Toronto Maple Leafs. Nobody "cleaned up" the situation.

New Jersey coach Claude Julien. Janssen didn't play a single shift after the incident, giving him a free pass. This is in violation of the unwritten code pertaining to facing the music.

New Jersey Devils organist. While a player was knocked out and could have had a very serious injury, the organist played on. Give the rah-rah stuff a rest in situations like this.

Yes, I know that players are taught at a young age to "finish your check" and to "play through the whistle" and I know that hitting is part of the game. Obviously. However, hitting high and late is not "part of the game". Lining up a star player like that is not "part of the game". Refusing to face the music is not "part of the game".

Again, I'll recommend that you read Damien Cox's scathing take on the incident. Just remember that he's a Leafs journalist.

The two teams will meet again in Toronto on March 20.