The Toronto Maple Leafs or, more specifically, Bryan McCabe, coughed up two points to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
McCabe handed the puck to Mike Komisarek, who scored a breakaway goal 35 seconds into overtime as the visiting Canadiens beat the Maple Leafs 4-3 before a crowd of 19,595 at the Air Canada Centre.
Andrei Kostitsyn scores on Andrew Raycroft in a 4-3 Canadiens win.
(J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)
"It sucks," McCabe muttered. "I played a hard game again.
"[But] it seems like they always end in a glaring error, so that's not a good thing. But we got another point tonight — three games in a row — so we will keep taking those."
McCabe was simply sliding the puck across the Montreal blue-line to Nik Antropov, only to watch Komisarek intercept the pass.
"I just tried to make a play," McCabe said. "I should have put it deep and he read the play — what can you do?"
Komisarek, a defensive-minded rearguard, deked Maple Leafs netminder Andrew Raycroft to the forehand for just his second goal of the season.
"I looked over my shoulder and saw it was just me and Andrew Raycroft," Komisarek said. "I tried not to get too fancy."
Alex Kovalev provided one goal and two assists as the Canadiens (10-4-3) halted a four-game losing skid at Toronto.
"They beat us in our building last time," he said. "So it was nice to beat them here in this building."
Andrei Markov and Andrei Kostitsyn had the other goals, while Tomas Plekanec contributed two assists.
Rookie Carey Price finished with 37 saves.
"I am happy we won," he said. "But it is really just another win."
"I like his style," Kovalev said. "I like that kid.
"He is so calm. He has got a nice future."
Kyle Wellwood tallied his first two goals of the season for the Maple Leafs (7-8-4), who have lost five of their seven games.
Wellwood had failed to register a point since being activated Nov. 6, following a second surgery for a sports hernia that put him on the shelf for 48 games last season.
Boyd Devereaux had the other goal in support of Raycroft, who stopped 21 of 25 shots.
"I thought Razor played outstanding," Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake said. "I thought we played well tonight.
"It just wasn't enough, obviously. They have got some skilled guys over there."
"It is definitely frustrating," said Maple Leafs defenceman Ian White, who had two assists.
"We have been making big strides as a team in the last couple games. We did play fairly solid tonight, for the most part.
"But those mental lapses, they kill us. We had two leads."
Markov hits mark
Markov opened the scoring 13:43 into the contest, blasting a slapshot between Raycroft's pads for his sixth goal this season.
But Wellwood tied it 1-1 at 2:01 of the second period, and flipped in a rebound to put Toronto ahead 2-1 with 1:34 remaining.
However, the lead proved shortlived as Kastsitsyn shovelled in a rebound for his second with 51 seconds left in the period.
Devereaux restored Toronto's advantage 9:44 into the third period, tipping White's point shot past Price for his third.
But the Canadiens forced overtime on a splendid rush by Plekanec, who fed Kovalev in the slot for his ninth with 6:02 left in regulation.
"Guys missed assignments," White said. "And against a skilled team, they're going to make you pay.
"We have got to work on that. We have got to be mentally sharp pretty much every second of the game, because you let down and they score."
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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