Maple Leafs 3 - 0 Wild
Final
  for this game

Leafs make a stop in Minnesota

Mar 22, 2011 - 3:09 PM (Sports Network) - The Maple Leafs continue to hang around in the Eastern Conference's playoff race.

The Wild's current six-game winless streak, which matches a club record, may have put the nail in their postseason coffin.

Toronto hopes to make up some ground in the opener of a three-game road trip, while Minnesota aims to rebound from its worst loss ever this evening at Xcel Energy Center.

The Maple Leafs have alternated wins and losses over their last six games and enter this contest five points back of the eighth-place Sabres with nine games to go. Buffalo is visiting Montreal tonight and has a game in hand over Toronto.

Saturday's 5-2 victory over the Bruins helped the Maple Leafs rebound from a shutout loss to the Panthers last Thursday and gave the club 74 points to match its total from last season. Secondary scoring was key to the win as Joey Crabb had a goal and two assists, while Mike Brown and Nazem Kadri added tallies.

"If we want to make a playoff run, we're going to need that secondary scoring," said Kadri, who scored his first career goal in his 21st NHL game.

Strong play by James Reimer will also help. The rookie goaltender made 35 saves and is 15-7-4 with a 2.59 goals-against average in 28 games this season, all but two of those starts.

Reimer is likely to get his first ever look at the Wild, who are coming off an embarrassing 8-1 beating by the Canadiens on Sunday. Mikko Koivu had the lone goal on a penalty shot in Minnesota's largest margin of defeat in club history.

Jose Theodore and Niklas Backstrom also combined to allow the most goals in a home game in club history. Theodore yielded five goals on 19 shots before getting pulled in the second. Backstrom stopped 10-of-13 shots faced the rest of the way as the Wild fell to 0-5-1.

"We didn't get off to a good start, then being down 2-0 I think we started to press and it really snowballed, and snowballed quick," said Wild head coach Todd Richards.

"Our execution was probably the worst I've seen in just about two years now here."

Minnesota hasn't gone winless in six games since its record run from Dec. 5-17, 2008 and is now seven points out of a postseason spot with nine games remaining.

Koivu scored a goal and added two assists in last year's 5-2 road win over the Maple Leafs, giving the Wild a victory in three of the past four in this series.

Toronto will be making just its fourth ever trip to Minnesota and has lost its last two trips there.

Backstrom has won both of his career starts versus the Leafs, yielding just three goals on 67 shots faced.

While Toronto's Mike Komisarek will miss his third straight game with a groin injury, Darryl Boyce is questionable after suffering an upper-body ailment versus Boston.






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