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Roberts scores twice as Panthers blast Leafs

Dec 20, 2006 - 6:16 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Sparked by Gary Roberts, a rare flurry by the Florida Panthers put the Toronto Maple Leafs on ice.

Roberts scored two goals and the Panthers solved their offensive woes for a second straight game with a 7-3 victory over Toronto, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Florida goaltender Ed Belfour made a successful return to Toronto, which beat Boston, 6-3, Saturday, but has scored five or more goals just three other times all season.

"When we started this game we weren't as sharp as we were supposed to be," Florida left wing Martin Gelinas said. "Eddie kept us in the game and we were able to come back and score some big goals.

"It's nice to get two (wins) in a row. I think that we're starting to believe that we're capable of doing things offensively and tonight was an example."

After Toronto took an early 1-0 lead, Florida scored seven unanswered goals. Rostislav Olesz chipped in a shot from in front of the net under goaltender Andrew Raycroft's pads with four minutes left in the first period to tie the contest.

Roberts then beat Raycroft stick-side on a tip-in with his back to the net with 57 seconds left in the first before Ville Peltonen converted a giveaway by Hal Gill by beating Raycroft top shelf with seven seconds left.

Roberts added his 11th of the season unassisted 28 seconds into the second period.

"It felt good to play that well for Eddie," Roberts said. "Eddie has played very good for us and we've let our goalies down at times this year. It could have easily been 3-1 for Toronto after the first period. When Eddie's healthy and he's on, there's not too many guys better."

Roberts was originally credited with his third goal 6:36 into the third period, but a scoring change after the game gave the goal instead to Nathan Horton.

"Gary has been very consistent this year," Florida coach Jacques Martin said. "He's having a great season not only on the ice but he's providing a lot of leadership for our hockey club. We knew that when we signed him (two years ago from Toronto) we were getting a player that would not only help us on the ice but be a tremendous help to the organization for a long time."

As a member of the Maple Leafs, Roberts tallied three times against the New York Rangers on December 6, 2001 - his last career hat trick.

Florida's Jozef Stumpel had four assists and has scored eight points in his last two games.

After allowing Jeff O'Neill's 11th goal of the season 2:51 into the game on Toronto's first shot, Belfour shut down the Maple Leafs' attack until the game was decided. He finished with 33 saves.

"Eddie (Belfour) was really big in the first period," Martin said. "The Leafs had some good opportunities - they had three power plays in a row - but I thought our penalty killers did a good job. Belfour came up with some big saves that really kept us in the game and then we were able to capitalize with three quick goals at the end of the first period."

The Panthers' defense came up big in the first period, allowing no goals and just one shot against three Maple Leafs' power plays.

"It was a great win for us," Belfour said. "We really needed that. It always great playing here (in Toronto). It's really fun to be back here. We've been playing better defensively the last four or five games and it makes a difference.

"You always want to play your best against your former team. Definitely in Toronto you want to play your best - it's the hockey capital of the world.