Stars Lose To Toronto
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DALLAS — After morning skate, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said the best Christmas present his team could have was a win against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night. Well thanks to left winger James van Riemsdyk’s goal and two assists, the Leafs delivered a 4-0 victory at American Airlines Center, snapping a three-game losing streak.
“Hopefully we can use this as a little bit of a breather, enjoy the holidays,” Carlyle said. “Best Christmas present we could have given ourselves.”
Toronto center Nazem Kadri added a goal and an assist, center Phil Kessel added two assists and forwards Tyler Bozak and Mike Santorelli added a goal each.
Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier stopped all 43 shots he faced to earn his second shutout of the season and ninth of his career.
“I actually don’t think my rebound control was right on tonight,” Bernier said. “I had a few bad rebounds but the d-men did a good job tying up sticks and letting me get back in position.”
The Stars (14-14-5), who saw their four-game winning streak snapped, were shut out for the first time this season.
“It’s a tough one to really break down,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “We hit posts. We hit the
post (right before the van Riemsdyk goal) and they kind of swung it around, and they get a breakaway going the other way. The game could have been 1-1 and it ended up being 2-0.”
Kadri gave the visitors an early lead with his 10th goal of the season 55 seconds into the game. Kadri found space between Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski and center Tyler Seguin at the far post. Kadri then knocked in a van Riemsdyk pass on the first shot of the game for either team.
Toronto (20-12-3) went ahead 2-0 when van Riemsdyk beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen with a backhand shot to cap a breakaway 6:21 into the second period.
Kadri showed great vision with a pinpoint pass from the Toronto blue line to a streaking van Riemsdyk, who received the puck near the Dallas blue line. And after some deft stick-handling, the big winger scored through the five-hole for his 15th goal of the season.
“Yeah, we wanted to go in (to the holiday) on a winning note,” van Riemsdyk said. “Obviously, didn’t get the result we wanted last few and it’s a good result going into the break.”
Bozak added a power-play goal, his 13th of the season, with 9:30 remaining in the second to make it 3-0. Toronto defenseman Dion Phaneuf had his slapshot from the high slot deflected by Stars defenseman Jordie Benn. After striking Benn, the puck found Bozak’s stick before traveling over the line. After a short review, Bozak’s goal was deemed valid and the Maple Leafs had a three-goal lead.
Lehtonen stopped 22 of 25 shots he faced for Dallas before leaving the ice with 4:44 remaining, allowing Santorelli to add an empty-net goal with 3:51 remaining, his seventh of the season. Van Riemsdyk was credited with his second assist of the game on the goal.
Dallas falls to 6-7-5 at home.
“We had more than enough chances,” Ruff said. “You have to give Bernier credit. He was fabulous. Our special teams weren’t good enough. They could have made a difference.”
Toronto got its first win since Dec. 16 against the Anaheim Ducks.
“Losing streaks, you don’t want them to linger and that one was lingering long enough for us,” Carlyle said.
Phaneuf heaped much of his praise onto Bernier’s shoulders for his stellar performance between the pipes.
“It started with (Bernier),” Phaneuf said. “He made some extremely timely saves, some acrobatic saves that will be on the highlight reel, but he was a rock for us back there again.”
