Maple Leafs Come Out On Top In Goalie Duel With Panthers
"While the NHL is trying to everything possible to try to increase goal scoring on a nightly basis, fans at the Air Canada Centre were treated to an old-fashioned goalie duel on Tuesday night.
As we have seen many times this season, the Maple Leafs got off to a slow start with the Panthers getting credit for nine of the first 10 shots of the game. Thankfully, Frederik Andersen was on his game early to keep all those pucks out of the net before the Leafs started to push back in the second half of the opening period.
The Leafs opened the scoring with just 28.3 seconds left in the first period. Tyler Bozak fed the puck to James van Riemsdyk at the left dot where he fired off a quick wrist shot through the legs of Roberto Luongo for his 25th goal of the season. Jake Gardiner picked up the secondary assist for the 200th point of his NHL career.
The late first period goal by van Riemsdyk would be the only tally of the night. Luongo and Andersen made 70 combined saves in a very entertaining game. Andersen stopped all 40 shots he saw to earn both First Star honors and his career-high fifth shutout of the season. It will be hard to ignore Andersen's numbers when it comes to Vezina Trophy voting at the end of the year.
The Maple Leafs will be back in action on Thursday night when they host the New York Islanders. "
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