TORONTO — Mats Sundin scored the shootout winner in his return to the city where he spent 13 memorable years, giving the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
Sami Salo and Alex Burrows scored in regulation for the Canucks, and Jason Blake and Matt Stajan countered for Toronto.
Sundin’s winner in the third round of the shootout against Vesa Toskala came with his patented backhand move and helped earn him the first star. Sundin received a long ovation when he came back out and took a bow to the crowd.
While some fans booed Sundin in his first game at the arena as a visiting player, he was mostly well-received. The longtime Leafs captain was nearly moved to tears in the first period when he received a long standing ovation after a video tribute was played on the scoreboard.
The special treatment didn’t carry on to the ice. Dominic Moore shoved Sundin a few times in the first period and set off a scrum in front of the Vancouver bench.
The Maple Leafs emerged from that melee with a power play and Blake soon made it 1-0. He tipped Pavel Kubina’s point shot by Roberto Luongo at 12:06 and pumped his fists in celebration of a team-leading 22nd goal of the season.
At the other end, Toskala was back in net for the Leafs and looked solid during his first start in a week. He stopped a long shot from Sundin in the first period and got his glove on a good power-play chance by Steve Bernier early in the second.
The Toronto goalie can’t be faulted for the goal that tied it at 9:49 of the second period. Salo’s point shot deflected off Niklas Hagman’s shin pad and behind Toskala on a power play.
Stajan got that back with a rare short-handed goal. He carried the puck into Vancouver’s zone and beat Luongo through the legs with a low shot at 16:11. That gave him a career-best 41 points on the season.
One of the game’s highlights came before the end of the second period and it didn’t involve Sundin or a goal. Moore broke his stick while blocking a shot at the Leafs blue-line and managed to come in on a breakaway using his feet to kick the puck forward. He even found Blake with a pass but Luongo stopped the shot.
The Canucks were trailing 2-1 as they went to the dressing room after 40 minutes and likely got an earful from Alain Vigneault.
They started the third period with more urgency, but weren’t able to generate any top-rate scoring chances. The Canucks even squandered a 4-minute power play after Moore was sent off for cutting Willie Mitchell with a high stick.
It was just starting to look bleak when Burrows tied it 2-2 at 16:03. Daniel Sedin’s long shot was heading well wide of the goal until Burrows redirected the puck from the slot.<
Notes: Canucks forward Kyle Wellwood played 189 games for the Leafs over the last four seasons … Nikolai Kulemin was a healthy scratch for Toronto … Leafs defenseman Pavel Kubina picked up his 300th career point … Sundin is Toronto’s franchise leader with 420 goals and 987 points … The announced attendance was 19,504.
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