Maple Leafs 7, Lightning 3
Joffrey Lupul scored a goal and assisted on three others as the
Toronto Maple Leafs opened their 2012 slate with a 7-3 trashing of the
visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
Darryl Boyce scored his first career goal and Mikhail Grabovski, Matt
Frattin and Dion Phaneuf each recorded a goal and an assist for the
Maple Leafs.
Boyce gave Toronto the lead for good with 6:17 remaining in the
second, capping a fury of four goals in 1:48. Streaking down the right
side, Frattin got all the way to the end line before flicking a pass
into the slot for Boyce, who tapped it in.
Tampa Bay right wing Steve Downie let his frustrations get the better
of him shortly after Boyce’s goal, drawing a game misconduct penalty
for roughing.
Lupul had knotted it at 1-1 with his 18th goal, taking a feed in the slot from Tim Connolly and wristing it past Mathieu Garon.
Lupul would get an assist on Carl Gunnarsson’s blast from the point
later in the first that made it 2-1 and helped Toronto go up 3-2 with
another on Grabovski’s tally in the second.
The Maple Leafs got the power play working to put it away, with
Frattin scoring on the man-advantage late in the second and Phaneuf
grabbing a power-play goal at the 1:23 mark of the third