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PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- All it took for the
Toronto Maple Leafs
to snap their losing streak against the
Philadelphia Flyers
was
Brian Leetch
.
Leetch scored two goals and set up the other as the
Maple Leafs
ended a five-game skid against the Flyers with a 3-2 victory.
Acquired from the
New York Rangers
on March 3, Leetch has been exactly what was hoped of him, collecting eight assists in his first seven games with Toronto.
The two-time Norris Trophy winner was just as effective in this one, setting up
Gary Roberts
' shorthanded tally in the first period before scoring his first goal as a Maple Leaf on the power play early in the second.
"He played great," Roberts said. "He has been a real nice addition. You can see it on the power play, he makes great plays. He plays in every situation, and that is why he is an All-Star."
Leetch completed his second multi-goal game of the season just over four minutes into the third, giving Toronto a 3-0 cushion. He has 26 career tallies against Philadelphia, the most vs. any opponent.
"When you have skill like him, you're going to get some goals," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "The more important job is making sure you're playing defense and doing your job. He does that quite well. He might be our best guy right now on the blue line, and that's big in my opinion."
Ed Belfour
was 4:28 away from his eighth shutout of the season before
John LeClair
and defenseman
Kim Johnsson
scored 90 seconds apart to pull the Flyers within a goal.
"The guys gave it a good shot at the end," LeClair said. "The feeling was that if we got one, we might start getting a few more. We just ran out of time."
Toronto withstood a last-minute charge to climb within one point of first-place Boston in the Northeast Division.
"They are ahead of us, but the team we have to pay attention to is us," said Quinn, whose club lost to the Bruins on Tuesday. "We have some games left, and one with them. Hopefully, we can play a more playoff-oriented hockey game than we did the other night."
Owners of the NHL's top-ranked power play, the Flyers had a two-man advantage just before Toronto got on the board at 15:53 of the first period.
Immediately after exiting the penalty box, Roberts took a pass from Leafs captain
Mats Sundin
at the Philadelphia blue line and raced in alone on goaltender
Robert Esche
. Switching to his backhand, Roberts lifted the puck into the top right corner of the net for his 27th goal.
"It was a nice heads-up play by Mats," Roberts said. "I just tried to keep it simple and I was fortunate to score. Anytime you go to your backhand, you try to get the puck up. I was lucky enough to get it over his glove."
Toronto converted its own 5-on-3 power play at 6:14 of the second, when Leetch's slap shot from above the left faceoff circle beat Esche as Roberts set a perfect screen.
Just after crossing the blue line at 4:01 of the third, Leetch unleashed a shot that Esche could not corral.
"He actually came across and came across Vladie's body and shot it back through him," Esche said, referring to Flyers defenseman
Vladimir Malakhov
. "It's one that you've got to stop."
"On my first one, Gary was in front of the net," Leetch said. "On my second, I got a deflection. I've had better chances in the time that I've been here, they haven't been going in."
LeClair cashed in on Philadelphia's eighth power-play chance at 15:32 and Johnsson cut the deficit to 3-2 with his career-high 12th goal. But it was not enough as the Flyers failed to pad their five-point lead over New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.
"We were very fortunate that we beat them twice in the same week," said Philadelphia right wing
Mark Recchi
, whose team had a six-game home unbeaten streak snapped. "Those were very big wins for us and we knew that."
"It was our inability to score on our power play that hurt us more than anything else," coach Ken Hitchcock added. "You work hard to create those power plays, you want to take advantage of them."
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