So with Rielly, Leivo, MacWilliam, McKegg, and Sparks all sitting this game out and Finn leaving mysteriously after a period of play, you might have guessed that this would be a tough one for the Leafs rookies but you’d be wrong.
Stuart Percy was the best player on the ice, and Brad Ross was the best forward for either team pacing the Leafs to a 4-3 shootout win over a Penguins team with no competent forwards.
Zachary Yuen was probably the game’s biggest surprise. He had a solid game in every respect and almost certainly opened some eyes with his performance tonight; I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dressed again tomorrow for the team to get a better look.
The game itself was a back and forth affair, starting with a bang in the first (Pitt goal, 2 fights, Tor goal) and ending with a fizzle (shootouts are kinda lame).
Toronto’s first goal was scored by Matt Rupert on the PP. With Biggs providing the traffic in front, a rebound from a point shot found its way to Rupert’s stick and he punched it in.
The second goal was scored by Fabrice Herzog after some nice retrieval work by Ross and Verhaeghe and a pretty sweet behind the back pass from Ross. Herzog was given too much time in front and he took advantage of it.
Toronto’s third goal was a nice little passing play between Andrew Crescenzi and Jamie Devane in transition with Crescenzi potting the goal on a first touch shot, over the goalie’s shoulder.
Shootout goals were scored by Ross and Percy — the Leafs‘ two best players tonight.
With that, the Leafs move to 2-0 on the tournament and will play against Ottawa’s rookies tomorrow night. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more of Leivo and Rielly, and with any luck whatever took Finn out of tonight’s game isn’t anything serious.
See you all tomorrow.
Here’s the shootout. Check out the liveblog for more game details and goal videos.
