Joffrey Lupul scored two goals and James Reimer made 43 saves in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars at Air Canada Centre. The victory was the Maple Leafs' first at home this season and put an end to the Stars' three-game winning streak. Lupul, who had 10 goals and 21 points in 55 games last season for the Maple Leafs, has five goals in 11 games. Lupul was pleased about scoring twice, but appeared to be more excited about his line's performance against the Stars' top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Patrick Sharp. Lupul plays right wing on a line with center Nick Spaling and left wing Daniel Winnik. The Maple Leafs grabbed an early lead when Brad Boyes scored his first goal of the season at 8:24. Boyes, who was scratched the previous two games, took two stabs at a loose puck in front of the net and got the second attempt past Stars goaltender Antti Niemi. Toronto center Byron Froese got his first NHL point with an assist. Dallas tied it 58 seconds later when Jamie Benn added to his NHL-leading point total (18) with his 10th goal of the season, which also leads the League. Benn drove hard to the net, used Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly as a screen and beat Reimer with a low shot. Toronto appeared to regain the lead at 15:48 when Boyes struck again. But Dallas' Lindy Ruff used his coach's challenge and it was determined Froese was offside. The Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead 21 seconds into the second period when Lupul scored his fourth goal of the season. Rielly let go a shot from the right point that hit Niemi in the chest, but Lupul was on the doorstep for the rebound. The Stars had a chance to even the score when Radek Faksa broke in alone while playing shorthanded, but hit the crossbar. Thirty seconds later, Lupul took a pass in front of the Stars net from Nazem Kadri and scored his second of the game. The Stars had another opportunity to pull within a goal at 6:07 of the third period when Valeri Nichushkin was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked from behind while on a breakaway by Toronto defenseman Jake Gardiner. Nichushkin attempted to beat Reimer with a backhand deke, but shot wide.
Rielly scored a power-play goal on a 3-on-1 with 12.6 seconds remaining. Babcock has already decided to reward Reimer with a second straight start on Wednesday when the Maple Leafs host the Winnipeg Jets. Toronto was 2-for-5 on the power play; Dallas was 0-for-2. Niemi made 22 saves.
Stars Quotes
Jamie Benn: "It's a little bit of everything tonight. We've got to give their goalie credit, he played pretty good. We gave them too many easy goals, and that's the game."Lindy Ruff: "I don't know if we deserved to win. We had a couple of missed assignments right in front of our own net and that can change the game. At the same time, I thought Reimer was real good. He made some real key saves. We had some opportunities to turn the momentum, but I still think when you hand a team two goals on missed assignments, I don't think at the end of the night you deserve to win."
Opposition Quotes
Mike Babcock: "[Lupul] has been the best, I don't know why, when he plays with those guys. He seems to score better when he is playing with a cycle group as opposed to a rush group. That's good for us. Our goaltending was good to night and gave us the opportunity to have success. To me, if you play good you get to start the next game and if you play good again you get to start the game after that."
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