Phil Kessel scored his first goal with Toronto and Jonas Gustavsson made 35 saves to lead the Maple Leafs to a 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night. After a dreadful start to the season, things have started to turn around for the Maple Leafs. They've been playing much better hockey the past two weeks _ buoyed in large part by Gustavsson taking over the No. 1 goaltending job _ and have moved out of the NHL basement by winning two in a row and earning points in seven straight games (3-0-4). Wayne Primeau, Jeff Finger, John Mitchell and Alexei Ponikarovsky also scored for Toronto. Daniel Cleary scored for the Red Wings. Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the first period. Primeau scored his first with the Maple Leafs at 10:34, when he came in off the wing and beat Chris Osgood to the blocker side. Kessel extended the lead at 19:34 with a tap-in goal. Jason Blake's shot had rolled past Osgood when Kessel tipped the puck into an empty net. Finger made it 3-0 at 5:21 of the second period after jumping into the rush and taking a nice pass from Lee Stempniak. It was a big goal for the defenseman, who has been a healthy scratch eight times this season. Gustavsson was sharp once again, coming across his crease early in the third period to deny Henrik Zetterberg. Continued... |