Who saw this coming?
Not even the most die-hard Maple Leafs fan could have predicted a win for Toronto on Sunday night against the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Leafs, after all, were coming off a disheartening 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on home ice Saturday evening and because of the Christmas break, they hadn't practised since last Tuesday — to say nothing of the fact that the Penguins had won six of their of their previous seven contests.
Sunday's game had disaster written all over it, but instead of lying down, the Leafs rose to the occasion with one of their most inspired efforts of the season in earning a 4-3 victory in Pittsburgh.
Ian White scored with 1:22 left in regulation, his third goal in four games, to give Toronto the win.
"I think we kept a quiet confidence after [Pittsburgh's tying goal]," White said. "We didn't get deflated — and that's a pretty deflating time to get one scored against you. But we kept on pushing, had a couple more hard shifts, and it paid off."
White also had an assist, Lee Stempniak collected three points (a goal and two assists), and goalie Vesa Toskala made 21 saves. Alexei Ponikarovsky also chipped in with a pair of assists.
The news wasn't all good for the Leafs, though. Forward Phil Kessel failed to register a point and has been kept off the scoresheet for a season-high six consecutive games.
Toronto came out flying, opening the scoring at 2:28 of the first period when Luke Schenn's point shot found its way past Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. The goal marked only the 12th time in 40 games this season that Toronto scored first.
"Scoring the first goal, I think, was huge for us," Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. "I don't think Pittsburgh had their 'A' game, but neither did we."
Schenn's shot appeared to be tipped in by teammate Mikhail Grabovski, but the goal was credited to the young defenceman, who has five points (one goal and four assists) in 37 games.
The lead was short-lived as Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke scored on a two-on-one less than three minutes later, taking advantage of a defensive mistake by Garnet Exelby.
Stempniak's power-play goal with 3:28 remaining in the period restored Toronto's one-goal lead heading into the intermission. The goal was Toronto's first with the man advantage in six games.
Sidney Crosby wielded a bit of magic to net his 23rd goal of the campaign at 7:48 of the second period. After winning the puck behind the net with his team on the power play, he broke out from the sideboards and powered past two Leaf players before slipping the puck by a sprawling Toskala.
"I think our execution wasn't there, and that's pretty typical when you come back from a break and we were playing a team who had already played and had their legs under them a little bit," Crosby said. "We worked hard, but it seems like we just couldn't execute the way we needed to."
Toronto retook the lead seven minutes later when Jason Blake's wrist shot slipped through the pads of Fleury and into the back of the net.
Fleury made amends in the first half of the final frame when he made three consecutive big stops, including a brilliant pad save on Matt Stajan to rob the Leafs forward of a goal.
Fleury's stellar play inspired the Penguins, who tied the game with 2:15 left in regulation, with Mike Ruff scoring at the side of the net after receiving a great pass from Evgeni Malkin.
Toronto battled back and White blasted a slapshot by Fleury at 18:38 to put the Penguins away.
"Obviously getting some traffic to the net was paramount for us tonight against Fleury," Wilson said.
Toronto visits the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday before ending its three-game road trip next Saturday against the Calgary Flames (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).
With files from The Associated Press
