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Steen lifts Maple Leafs past Bruins

Jan 18, 2008 - 4:56 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Alex Steen opened the scoring and later ended the game on Thursday.

Steen scored four minutes into first period and then tallied in the third round of the shootout as the Toronto Maple Leafs edged the Boston Bruins, 3-2, in a battle of "Original Six" rivals.

The victory, its second straight following a five-game skid, was Toronto's first in its last seven tries on the road and first in four meetings with Boston this season.

"Division games are always big," Steen said. "It's only a one-point swing, but it's huge for us just to keep this winning streak alive."

After captain Mats Sundin backhanded the puck past Alex Auld in the second round of the bonus format, Steen ended the contest by deking the goaltender and backhanding the puck into the net.

As it turned out, Steen had a little help from the Maple Leafs' backup goalie.

"I went over to (Andrew Raycroft), and he told me that if I could get (Auld) out a little farther and get him to bite on a fake, then I'd probably have some room," Steen said.

After missing Tuesday night's win over Carolina with flu-like symptoms, Steen felt as if he was playing with a little more energy.

"It wasn't so much the sickness," Steen said. "It was more the lack of food and nutrition. But the training staff did a great job of getting water and fluids into me, and I had a lot of energy."

Maple Leafs netminder Vesa Toskala stopped Phil Kessel and Marc Savard in the first two rounds of the shootout.

It was the first shootout win of Toskala's career after losing his first seven. "Was it only 0-7?" the netminder asked. "I thought it was 0-10!"

Steen gave Toronto a quick 1-0 lead exactly four minutes into the contest. Stationed in the left faceoff circle, Steen wristed a shot past a screened Auld and just under the crossbar for his eighth goal of the season.

All-Star defenseman Zdeno Chara leveled the game with just over 5 1/2 minutes remaining in the first period.

Savard, who is replacing injured Ottawa star Dany Heatley in the All-Star Game, skated in from below the end line and saw Chara skating into the left faceoff circle. Savard fed the Bruins' towering captain, who buried a slap shot low to the blocker side of Toskala with Marco Sturm setting a screen for his seventh tally.

Quick puck movement led to Boston's next goal 90 seconds later.

After a quick give-and-go with defenseman Dennis Wideman, Savard worked along the boards before feeding Sturm in front. The German deked Toskala and stuffed a backhander into the open net for his 14th goal and a 2-1 edge.

Matt Stajan evened the contest 8.8 seconds remaining in the second period.

After solid defense had kept the Maple Leafs in check for more than 19 minutes, the Bruins lost their discipline in their own zone. Stajan was quick to capitalize, pouncing on the rebound of blue-liner Pavel Kubina's shot and lifting the puck past a sprawled Auld for his 11th goal of the campaign.

Despite the shootout loss, the Bruins were glad not to skate away empty-handed.

"We really worked hard for that point," Chara said. "At this stage of the season, we'll take any points. You can look at the glass as half empty or half full."