Flying V For Leafs

The Maple Leafs found themselves trailing twice against the Ducks once in the first period and once in the second and both times they fought back.

After going behind 2-1 in the second, Clarke MacArthur made a great play to circle the Ducks' zone before finding Carl Gunnarsson whose shot got past Jonas Hiller. Just 3:05 later the Leafs moved the puck quickly ahead to Tyler Bozak who whistled home the winner.

Clarke MacArthur's excellent season continued against the Ducks on Thursday. He was one of the most dangerous Leafs.

In the first, he cashed in the rebound off the Phil Kessel shot. He showed great patience on the Gunnarsson goal in the second and also to find Mikhail Grabovski on the fifth goal. MacArthur finished the night with three points, a plus one, five shots on net and two hits. He now has 40 points for the season and is three goals shy of a new career high.

Tyler Bozak had one of his best games in a long time. He was extremely good on the penalty kill with Colby Armstrong as the tandem had several chances to score.

One area where Bozak excelled at on Thursday was in the faceoff circle. He won 15 of 18 draws (83 per cent). He also had a great bodycheck on Toni Lydman. Bozak's big night was complete when he notched the winner for his first goal in eight games.

The Maple Leafs have greatly improved their penalty killing over the past eight games. Over that span they have killed off 22 of 26 penalties for a 84.6 percentage and their record is 5-2-1.

A big reason has to do with the amount of blocked shots and the pressure that they have been putting on the opposition. Bozak and Armstrong have been deployed as the two main forwards with Luke Schenn and Carl Gunnarsson the two main defencemen.

Ron Wilson on how the penalty killing, particularly of Colby Armstrong and Tyler Bozak, sparked the Leafs:
 
"Tonight our penalty killers took advantage of them being a little relaxed at 2-to-1 and I think it certainly turned the game around. The first one was great and the second one was just as good with the scoring chances that we had. So we gained some momentum and confidence from that and put them away after we killed off the second one."

Game Notes:
The Leafs play the third game in four nights when they host Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals for the first meeting at the ACC this season.

Washington sits in fifth in the Eastern Conference. Ovechkin has continued to struggle in the goal department as he has just 16 goals this season.