Beware of sharks

Kapanen pots two

To the Maple Leafs, Thursday night’s final horn felt like the end of a Jaws movie.

The John Williams theme had faded and those menacing fins have been out-witted.  That has not been the positive result Toronto has been fishing for at the SAP Center first Jan. 11, 2011. But Thursday night, with the Sharks in a bad mood and ready to bare their teeth, the Leafs did what they do best and countered strongly in a 5-3 win.

It puts Toronto in the rare position of being able to sweep a three-game California trip for the first time since December of 1995 – if it can beat Anaheim Friday.             

So many little things added up for Toronto; John Tavares’ opening goal at the end of a power play drawn by Nazem Kadri, two rush goals by Kasperi Kapanen, including the club’s first short-handed game-winner in nearly two seasons, the fourth line all in on a Josh Leivo goal, with Frederick Gauthier’s first point of the year and Frederik Andersen capping a season-high 42 saves with a long bomb assist on Mitch Marner’s clincher.

“Good discipline,” said coach Mike Babcock. “It’s always hard to win here, they have a good club and a really active back-end. But we had good goaltending, really good special teams and found a way to win.

“We started really good (in the first period) and stopped playing the last 10 minutes. We said (at intermission) instead of getting involved in all the crap, why don’t we just play? We’re quicker than them. In the end, we got re-focused.”

He was referring to the Sharks going on a feeding frenzy for Nazem Kadri, their first chance since January to make Kadri pay for yanking out a piece of Joe Thornton’s beard in a fight.

“I figured they’d turn the page eventually,” a surprised Kadri said. “But I was fine with it. They were a little too worried about the wrong thing and we took care of business.”

The Sharks might also be sick of hearing Cup contending comments about the Leafs from back East all summer or wanted to silence all the Toronto fans that crowded their house.  Whatever, the night was a crowd pleaser; an end-to-end, fast-paced hard checking encounter that Toronto answered with speed, coverage and special teams. In other words, another useful playoff-style primer.

Babcock looked beyond the big names’ game.

“Lindy’s line (centred by Par Lindholm with checking fiends Connor Brown and Andreas Johnsson) was the best they’ve been, but I thought The Goat’s line was effective as well. We had good depth and that’s important. You don’t want to over-play your guys.”

The Leafs finally beat Martin Jones on their ninth try. Patrick Marleau looked a lot more comfortable for the start of this second game at the rink he called home for nearly two decades. He took the ceremonial faceoff with Joe Pavelski as they honoured mutual teammate Evgeni Nabokov’s induction to the local Hall Of Fame.

Freddie and Morgan congratulate

But the niceties ended there. Barclay Goodrow was sent off for cuffing Kadri off the opening draw and Brent Burns swung a wild one-hander his way as they passed on the ensuing power play. More skullduggery ensued throughout the game.

Just as Goodrow returned to the ice, Tavares looped around Jones’ net and banked a shot in via defender Marc-Edouard Vlasic. That gave him goals in four straight games, after no Leaf went beyond three last season.

But one cheesie goal deserved another when an Erik Karlsson dump-in took a home ice hop and landed in the blue paint with Andersen’s back turned, a short putt for Kevin Labanc.

Kadri and Timo Meier were sitting out a slashing exchange when a Travis Dermott poke check sent Marleau and Kapanen away 2-on-1, Marleau assisting after getting blanked here with a minus 2 some 13 months ago.

Morgan Rielly, after assisting on Tavares’s goal to extend his lead among NHL defencemen with 24 points, was in the box when Joe Pavelski was unguarded on a door-step power play. Vlasic got a step on Ron Hainsey to bury a Pavelski pass and make it 3-2.

The Leafs were on their heels to start the second period before the fourth line produced. Tyler Ennis used his wheels to ignite a 2-on-1, feeding Leivo for his second of the year.

With one of their best penalty killers in the box, Zach Hyman getting too aggressive on a forecheck, Marner took a puck back at the Leaf blueline and flipped to a flying Kapanen, who went high glove. Marner then settled under a long bomb by Andersen.