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On a night when the Leafs worryingly placed James Reimer on IR, suffering from what the management still didn’t want to call post concussion woes, we really needed Gus to step up. That he did. It wasn’t spectacular, but he was good.

1 — The Leafs are 6-2-1 and now we can stop drawing parallels to last season. Woohooo.

2 — Gaborik is fast and you have to play him better than we did on the first goal. It was 4 on 4 and two forwards were defending in Grabovski and Lombardi, but you have to be aware of Gaborik’s speed and deceptive first stride.

3 — This game featured the most horrendous first period of hockey I have seen in a long while. Rangers’ strategy early on was crashing Gus and crashing him often. The refs didn’t make things any better. A few good calls but they let too much go on Gustavsson, which just snowballed things. 3 on 3 hockey, escaped water bottles, penalties, and two rightfully disallowed Ranger goals.

4 — We got our first break of the night when Henrik Lundqvist let in a rare bad goal by on a shot from a bad angle by Matthew Lombardi. Right after Mike Brown destroyed Kris Newbury in what was a very good hockey fight. Besides the saves made on Kessel—s two breakaway chances, Lundqvist wasn—t particularly sharp tonight. Both Mac—s and Brown—s goals were ones he—d like to have back.

5 — Komisarek looked physical and composed out there tonight and I liked Gardiner—s poise in the offensive zone. Gardiner did have a few missed coverages in the D zone.

6 — At times, Tim Connolly proved what he could bring to the team with his slick passing ability. I think Frattin should start making a more regular trip to the USSR. MacArthur isn—t playing well right now, despite the goal. What I—m wondering is – where is that contract year desperation? Oh¦ In the meantime, Frattin is creating offense by crashing the net and shooting which is what this line could really use more of – simplicity.

7 — Joffrey Lupul keeps his stick on the ice and gets an ugly one to put us 2-1 up in the third. Lots of hard work by everyone on that line to get that goal, including Connolly out front. Lupul now has 5 goals on his last 24 shots.

8 — Besides the first Ranger goal, which was simply inexcusable, Jonas Gustavsson had a solid night between the pipes. His play on the Rangers PPs was particularly impressive.

9 — Mike Brown deserved a goal for all his hard work tonight, and I’m glad he got it, be it after Lundqvist laid a big egg. The big thing tonight was winning the battles and the team did that all over the ice.

10 — This was an ugly road win, but that’s never a bad thing. The boys battled hard and earned points against a team in their home opener, on extremely bad ice and after conceding first. It wasn—t pretty, but these are a big 2 points. An opportunistic win against a team that—s far from their best right now. 2 and 2 on a tough roadtrip.

BOXSCORE:

SCORING SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
06:23 NYR DAN GIRARDI (1) WRIST – ASST: M. GABORIK (1) AND A. ANISIMOV (3)
2ND PERIOD
01:20 TOR MATTHEW LOMBARDI (2) SNAP – ASST: T. BOZAK (5) AND C. GUNNARSSON (3)
3RD PERIOD
02:11 TOR JOFFREY LUPUL (5) WRIST – ASST: J. GARDINER (3) AND P. KESSEL (7)
06:33 TOR CLARKE MACARTHUR (1) SLAP – ASST: M. KOMISAREK (1)
13:54 TOR MIKE BROWN (1) WRIST – ASST: J. LILES (7)
15:26 NYR MICHAEL DEL ZOTTO (1) WRIST – ASST: NONE

PENALTY SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
04:42 TOR JOFFREY LUPUL : HI-STICKING  – 2 MIN
04:42 NYR RYAN CALLAHAN : ROUGHING  – 2 MIN
13:18 NYR BRANDON PRUST : INTERFERENCE  – 2 MIN
13:28 TOR TIM CONNOLLY : CLIPPING  – 2 MIN
14:03 TOR CARL GUNNARSSON : HOLDING  – 2 MIN
15:17 NYR DEREK STEPAN : HI-STICKING  – 2 MIN
2ND PERIOD
01:31 TOR MIKE BROWN : FIGHTING (MAJ)  – 5 MIN
01:31 NYR KRIS NEWBURY : FIGHTING (MAJ)  – 5 MIN
08:21 TOR MATT FRATTIN : INTERFERENCE ON GOALKEEPER  – 2 MIN
3RD PERIOD
07:45 NYR BRAD RICHARDS : SLASHING  – 2 MIN
15:58 NYR BRANDON DUBINSKY : UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT  – 2 MIN
SKATER STATS
TOR Pos G A P +/- PIM Shots EV TOI PP TOI SH TOI TOI
2   L. Schenn D 0 0 0 0 0 0 12:48 00:14 00:10 13:12
3   D. Phaneuf D 0 0 0 0 0 2 21:17 03:11 02:13 26:41
8   M. Komisarek D 0 1 1 2 0 0 17:14 00:00 02:15 19:29
11   P. Dupuis C 0 0 0 0 0 2 11:50 00:00 01:06 12:56
12   T. Connolly C 0 0 0 0 2 0 12:32 02:41 00:00 15:13
15   M. Lombardi C 1 0 1 0 0 2 10:46 00:30 00:32 11:48
16   C. MacArthur L 1 0 1 2 0 3 13:10 02:18 00:00 15:28
18   M. Brown R 1 0 1 1 5 2 10:15 00:00 00:25 10:40
19   J. Lupul R 1 0 1 0 2 4 14:00 02:36 00:00 16:36
20   D. Steckel C 0 0 0 0 0 1 10:57 00:00 01:43 12:40
24   J. Liles D 0 1 1 2 0 0 17:28 03:38 01:11 22:17
36   C. Gunnarsson D 0 1 1 0 2 1 20:35 01:40 00:59 23:14
39   M. Frattin R 0 0 0 1 2 1 10:55 00:30 00:00 11:25
41   N. Kulemin L 0 0 0 1 0 3 13:41 01:43 00:29 15:53
42   T. Bozak C 0 1 1 1 0 2 11:27 00:30 00:30 12:27
51   J. Gardiner D 0 1 1 0 0 4 13:02 02:13 00:00 15:15
81   P. Kessel R 0 1 1 0 0 5 14:20 03:03 00:00 17:23
84   M. Grabovski C 0 0 0 1 0 4 16:31 02:13 00:39 19:23
NYR Pos G A P +/- PIM Shots EV TOI PP TOI SH TOI TOI
4   M. Del Zotto D 1 0 1 0 0 1 16:44 01:34 01:33 19:51
5   D. Girardi D 1 0 1 1 0 2 19:43 00:36 02:44 23:03
8   B. Prust L 0 0 0 -1 2 2 08:48 00:10 01:12 10:10
10   M. Gaborik R 0 1 1 -1 0 4 19:48 02:10 01:16 23:14
17   B. Dubinsky C 0 0 0 0 2 2 17:25 01:06 00:20 18:51
19   B. Richards C 0 0 0 0 2 3 20:20 02:48 00:46 23:54
21   D. Stepan C 0 0 0 -2 2 3 14:25 02:10 01:28 18:03
22   B. Boyle C 0 0 0 -2 0 1 09:27 00:38 01:38 11:43
24   R. Callahan R 0 0 0 0 2 6 18:06 01:52 00:58 20:56
26   R. Fedotenko L 0 0 0 1 0 1 13:26 00:38 00:56 15:00
27   R. McDonagh D 0 0 0 1 0 3 19:26 00:10 03:09 22:45
38   M. Sauer D 0 0 0 0 0 0 19:02 00:00 02:40 21:42
40   E. Christensen C 0 0 0 0 0 1 08:54 00:26 00:00 09:20
42   A. Anisimov C 0 1 1 -1 0 0 08:11 00:26 02:14 10:51
44   S. Eminger D 0 0 0 -3 0 0 11:30 00:00 00:42 12:12
45   K. Newbury C 0 0 0 1 5 0 03:07 00:00 00:00 03:07
53   T. Erixon D 0 0 0 -3 0 1 14:23 00:26 00:00 14:49
86   W. Wolski L 0 0 0 -2 0 0 11:39 00:26 00:00 12:05

GOALIE STATS
TOTAL SV% TOI
TORONTO º 50 J. GUSTAVSSON 28 – 30 .933 59:51
NY RANGERS º 30 H. LUNDQVIST 32 – 36 .889 58:15

SHOTS ON GOAL
1ST 2ND 3RD T
TORONTO º 10 16 10 36
NY RANGERS º 16 7 7 30

TEAM STATS
PIM PP HITS FO WINS GVA TKA BKS
TORONTO º 13 0/4 15 31 3 5 9
NY RANGERS º 13 0/3 17 31 10 9 19