The Maple Leafs game in Dallas is an easy one to wrap up. Toronto ran out of gas in the overtime period, and could not get the puck out of their own zone. The Stars owned the Leafs in the extra period, and it seemed that it was inevitable that Toronto would lose, because the Stars were all over them. The Leafs were outshot 6-2 in the overtime. The Stars victory was also very basic, in that they followed the simple hockey formula that works for house leaguers and major leaguers who play the game. Quite simply, they go to the front of the net. The Leafs had a 3-2 lead when Kulemin scored at 13;11 of the third. Marty Turco let out a massive rebound from a Jason Blake shot, which Kulemin buried in the net. You would almost think the Leafs might even win the game. Well, that wasn’t meant to be. Mike Ribeiro deflected Jamie Benn’s shot in front of the net for a the tying goal with 2;45 left in regulation. The Stars benefited again with traffic in front of the Toronto goalkeeper Jonas Gustafsson, to win the game in the extra period. The major difference in the overtime, was the total domination of the Stars for most of that brief period. The goal was scored by James Neal, who pursued a rebound in front of the net, after Gustafsson had stopped a point shot by Stephane Robidas. How the Leafs could be so dominated in the overtime period was somewhat baffling. It almost seemed that they weren’t prepared to play with the required intensity for that short period of time. The few positives for the N.H.L.’s last place team, with 4 points and one regulation time win in 10 games, were the 3 assists for Jason Blake, and the 2 goals for Nikolai Kulemin. In spite of the 4 goals against Gustavsson, he did play well.
The Raptors victory over the Cavs was really 3 separate games in one contest. They looked like they were going to run away and hide with the game early on. It started off as the Andrea Bargnani show. By the end of the second quarter, he had 21 points, a blocked shot, 3 rebounds and a steal. With 32 seconds remaining in the first half, Toronto had a 21 point lead, which was at 18 by the conclusion of the 2nd quarter. At the half, LeBron James had 14 points and 5 rebounds. Shaquille O’Neal produced 8 points and 5 rebounds by the intermission. The Raptors looked like they were going to slip back into their meltdown mentality of last season, as they allowed Cleveland to get right back into the game and tie it at 69, with 2;22 left in the 3rd quarter. Toronto did reassert themselves by the end of the quarter by re-establishing a 7 point lead, with the score at 78-71. The Rap’s were back in front comfortably by 15 with 5;51 remaining in the game, and once again, Cleveland kept things interesting , climbing back to within 6 with 44 seconds remaining in the game. Toronto hung on to win the game 101- 91. The Cavs lost to the Boston Celtics 95-89 the previous evening.
Bargnani finished the game with 28 points,and 5 rebounds. Chris Bosh had 21 points, 16 rebounds and 2 assists. Hedo Turkoglu completed his first Raptors match with 12 points,7 rebounds,3 blocked shots, and 3 assists. LeBron James had 23 points, 11 boards, 12 assists, and 2 steals. Former Raptor Anthony Parker, produced 12 points, 5 rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot. The other ex Raptor, Jamario Moon, had 9 points, and 6 rebounds. Cleveland’s poor outing is explained quite readily in their field goal percentage, which was a scary 34.9. The Raptors shooting was 45.3 %.