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Antropov, Kubina lead charge as Leafs blitz Penguins

Dec 21, 2008 - 4:52 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Nik Antropov recorded a goal and two assists and defenseman Pavel Kubina added a tally and set up another as the Toronto Maple Leafs used goals from seven different players in a 7-3 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

Dominic Moore, Jeremy Williams and rookie defenseman Jonas Frogren scored first-period goals, while Niklas Hagman and Alexei Ponikarovsky also tallied for the Maple Leafs, who have won four of their last five contests.

Defenseman Tomas Kaberle and Matt Stajan notched three assists in support of Vesa Toskala, who made 20 saves.

"We dominated in all areas of the game," Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. "We had a great forecheck, a lot of rush chances moving through the neutral zone. And we played really well in our own end and denied their skill players a lot of open ice, so we frustrated them."

Petr Sykora scored two goals and Evgeni Malkin added his 15th goal of the season, but the Penguins fell for the sixth time in nine games in December.

"I don't know if they were completely on their game tonight, but that doesn't matter," Toronto defenseman Jeff Finger said. "We stuck to our gameplan, and it worked for us. Whatever we did tonight we want to continue to do."

Playing in his second game after missing five weeks with a groin strain, Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 33 shots before being relieved by Dany Sabourin at the start of the third period.

"I don't want to use (the injury) as the reason (for poor play)," Fleury said. "I played Thursday and was fine. Hopefully I can learn from this. It just was not a good game."

After Malkin answered Moore's goal to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the first, Toronto quickly struck to reclaim the lead for good when Williams tallied 62 seconds later on an innocuous-looking wrist shot from above the right-wing circle.

"When you're confident and things are going your way, it just seems to snowball," Williams said. "This stuff happens when you're doing so well away from the puck."

Frogren got his first career goal in similar fashion and Hagman tallied his ninth by capitalizing on a Malkin turnover in front of his own net midway through the second, and Kubina got his seventh while on the power play with 3:40 to play in the second.

The only signs of life by Penguins came from Sykora's 11th goal of the season off Malkin's league-leading 40th assist less than a minute into the third. But Toronto was not done yet, as Ponikarovsky and Antropov scored within the ensuing eight minutes.

"We got that 5-1 lead, but coming out in the third we knew they would come out hard," Antropov said. "For five minutes, they were all over us, but we got through that and kept playing well."

Sykora added his second tally by converting a pass from defenseman Alex Goligoski with 2:59 left.

"We didn't get momentum at any point of the game," Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. "We got a goal at the beginning of the third period but they got one right back. It was not a good effort at all."

The Maple Leafs had lost, 8-5, to Boston in their previous game Thursday.

"It was a really complete game for us," Hagman said. "We played a good first period with a lot of shots, guys were going to the net. The Boston game, we scored five goals and did a lot of good things, but defensively we weren't on the same page. Today, we wanted to respond by playing a really good game, and that really showed."