Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock enjoys matching wits against St. Louis Blues counterpart Ken Hitchcock. Babcock's team won 4-1 at Air Canada Centre, making the Maple Leafs 7-2-2 in their last 11 games, a run that began with a 4-1 win against Hitchcock and the Blues in St. Louis on Dec. 5.
Vladimir Tarasenko gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 8:28 into the second period, but James van Riemsdyk scored five seconds later, the first of four Maple Leafs goals in a row. After the faceoff, van Riemsdyk got to a loose puck that Alex Pietrangelo bobbled just inside the Blues blue line. Van Riemsdyk's quick wrist shot caught goalie Jake Allen off guard and extended his point streak to six games (four goals, four assists).
Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier made 39 saves to win his fifth game in his last seven starts. Toronto reached .500 for the first time in Babcock's first season with them; they started 1-7-2. St. Louis has lost three out of four.
The Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead on Peter Holland's power-play goal, 3:15 into the third period. Holland beat Allen with Leo Komarov making it difficult for Allen to get a clean look.
The Blues had an opportunity to tie the game a few shifts later, but Troy Brouwer missed an open net after teammate Carl Gunnarsson found him wide open. Toronto's Nazem Kadri scored with 5:55 remaining, and Michael Grabner scored an empty-net goal with 1:00 left.
Patrik Berglund played after missing the first 40 games of the season because of offseason shoulder surgery. He played 13:37 on a line with David Backes and Magnus Paajarvi.
Blues Quotes
Ken Hitchcock: "We lost the third period and we lost the special teams. It was really disappointing. We put in two really good periods, but we couldn't sustain any momentum when we had the lead. … We lost too many faceoffs in [the third period]."
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