TORONTO (AP) Curtis McElhinney was doing the usual work of a backup goalie at the end of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ bench midway through the
second period. Moments later – and to almost everyone’s surprise – he was in the
middle of the action.”I’m sitting there (charting) faceoffs
www.officialbluejackets.com ,” McElhinney said. ”Next thing you know they’re handing my gloves to
me.”McElhinney stopped 13 of 15 shots in relief of injured starter Frederik
Andersen – including a couple while his team was a killing a penalty in overtime
– before Mitch Marner scored the winner in the shootout as Toronto extended its
franchise-record home winning streak to 11 games with a 6-5 victory over the
Dallas Stars on Wednesday night.”The heart rate spikes,” McElhinney said of
getting called on without any warning. ”It certainly goes up and the adrenaline
starts pumping. … Once the first shot’s taken you kind of settle in.”Marner beat
Kari Lehtonen in the third round of the shootout, completing Toronto’s comebacks
from 4-2 and 5-4 deficits in the third period.James van Riemsdyk had his third
career hat trick, and Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau also scored in regulation
for the Maple Leafs.Andersen allowed three goals on 20 shots before leaving with
an upper-body injury. He skated to the bench during a television timeout with
9:35 left in the second and headed straight to the locker room. There was no
obvious sign he was hurt, but coach Mike Babcock didn’t seem overly concerned
afterwards.McElhinney came on and helped Toronto improve to 3-2-2 overall since
star center Auston Matthews went down with a shoulder injury on Feb. 22. Tyler
Bozak, who also scored in the shootout, and Marner each added two assists to
keep the Maple Leafs perfect at home since losing to Colorado on Jan. 22.Tyler
Seguin had a goal and two assists, Benn added a goal and an assist, and Radek
Faksa, Remi Elie and Brett Ritchie also scored in regulation for Dallas.
Lehtonen made 26 stops through overtime.”We came back and won the hockey game
about three times, but we ran out of gas
Columbus Blue Jackets T-Shirts Authentic ,” Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. ”It’s tough. I felt for the players.”After the Leafs stormed back with two goals
in the third to tie it 4-4, Ritchie took a feed from Seguin and beat McElhinney
with 6:42 remaining for his sixth goal of the season.However, Marleau tied it
with 15.3 seconds left in regulation when he tipped home Marner’s shot for his
22nd to send the game to overtime.Trailing by two after jumping out to an early
2-0 lead, the Maple Leafs pulled to 4-3 at 5:13 of the third when van Riemsdyk
softly flipped his second of the night into the roof of Lehtonen’s net.Toronto
got the game’s first power play with about 10 minutes left in regulation, and
van Riemsdyk scored his third goal of the night, and team-leading 29th of the
season, at 10:43 off a hard pass from Marner.Van Riemsdyk’s three goals moved
him past Matthews, who missed his 17th game of the season due to injury, for the
team lead.Trailing 2-0, the Stars got on the board with the teams playing 4-on-4
with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first when Seguin beat Leafs defenseman Morgan
Rielly to a puck in the corner off a faceoff and fed Benn, who got his
25th.Dallas tied it 1:32 later when Greg Pateryn blasted a shot from the point
that ticked off Faksa in front for his 14th.The Stars came out flying to start
the second – outshooting Toronto 9-1 – before Seguin gave his team its first
lead at 4:30 for with his 37th.Andersen left the crease during a television
timeout with 9:35 left in the second and went straight to the locker room.Dallas
pushed its lead to 4-2 at with just under six minutes left in the middle period
when Elie scored his sixth off a nice no-look feed from Devin Shore.While the
Maple Leafs are all but assured of finishing as the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic
Division with the playoffs less than a month away
Columbus Blue Jackets Hoodies Authentic , the Stars find themselves in a battle for a postseason spot in the tight Western Conference standings.Toronto opened
the scoring at 4:28 of the first when Kadri took advantage of Lehtonen’s miscue
in front to tap home his 27th.The crowd at Air Canada Centre barely had a chance
to get back in their seats before van Riemsdyk made it 2-0 just 25 seconds later
when he banged in a rebound – also his 27th – off a scramble in front.NOTES:
Maple Leafs forward Andreas Johnsson made his NHL debut. … Prior to the recent
four-game slide, Toronto had won 14 wins in 17. … Toronto D Nikita Zaitsev sat
out for a second consecutive game with the flu. … Stars D Marc Methot suffered a
hand injury against Montreal and didn’t dress. … Dallas No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop
missed his fifth straight outing with a lower-body injury.UP NEXTStars: At
Ottawa on Friday night.Maple Leafs: At Buffalo on Thursday night. GREENBURGH,
N.Y. (AP) Alexandar Georgiev is set to make his NHL debut for the New York
Rangers when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.The 22-year-old
Russian was 12-11-2 with a 2.97 goals-against average and .908 save-percentage
in 31 games with Hartford of the AHL before being called up by the Rangers on
Feb. 10.”Everything I hear about that young man is positive,” coach Alain
Vigneault said Wednesday at the team’s practice facility in suburban New York.
”I hope our team in front of him is going to play real hard. We got to come out
with energy.”Article continues below ...Starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist has
appeared in 27 of the Rangers’ last 30 games – twice when he came off the bench
to replace backup Ondrej Pavelec, who is currently injured. The Rangers have
lost 11 of their last 14, and Lundqvist has given up 18 goals on 128 shots
during their current four-game skid. That includes a 7-4 loss to Philadelphia on
Sunday.