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Maple Leafs, Canadiens battle for eighth spot in East

Feb 26, 2007 - 3:23 PM Toronto (30-23-9) at Montreal (32-26-6) 7:30 pm EST

MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Shootouts seem to be the norm when the Toronto Maple Leafs face the Montreal Canadiens.

The teams have each won two shootouts and the Maple Leafs emerged with a 5-1 victory in the lone non-shootout affair this season.

Toronto enters this contest with five losses in its last eight games and trails Montreal and the New York Islanders by one point for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Montreal has dropped seven of its last 10 contests.

The Maple Leafs are coming off a 5-2 victory at Philadelphia on Saturday. Captain Mats Sundin scored his 387th goal as a member of the club, climbing within two of Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler for the most in franchise history. The tally was the 522nd of Sundin's career, tying him with Pat Verbeek for 29th on the NHL's all-time list.

Montreal dropped a 3-2 decision to the New York Islanders on Saturday, ending its three-game winning streak.

Defenseman Tomas Kaberle recorded his first career hat trick in the Maple Leafs' 5-4 shootout victory here on October 28, while Sundin, Matt Stajan and Bryan McCabe have two goals apiece in the season series.

Montreal captain Saku Koivu has scored three times this campaign against Toronto, while defenseman Sheldon Souray has tallied twice.