CHICAGO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs have only managed to win 14 games so far this NHL season, but they have had little trouble dealing with the Chicago Black Hawks.
Rick Vaive and Wendell Clark each got a goal and an assist to lift Toronto to a 4-3 victory Sunday afternoon over Chicago. It was the Maple Leafs' third win over Chicago in four games this season.
'We've played some great hockey against the Black Hawks this year,' said Toronto coach Dan Maloney. 'They've got great skaters so you've got to contain them as best you can. We just felt we had to play a tougher checking game against them.'
Goalie Don Edwards, who stopped 38 shots, said there isn't anything different about the way the Maple Leafs play against Chicago.
'The atmosphere in this building (Chicago Stadium) is very good,' Edwards said. 'We just go out and grind it every night and hopefully we're improving.'
The victory was the first road win for Toronto in its last six games away from home.
Chicago defeated Toronto 7-4 on Saturday night in Toronto so the two teams played each other twice in less than 24 hours.
'I think we looked a little tired but when you play the same team it's the same for everybody,' said Chicago co-coach Roger Neilson.
Toronto had a 3-2 lead after two periods but could have led by more. The Maple Leafs had a 5-to-3 advantage during a power play for more than a minute early in the second period but failed to score.
Wendell Clark gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead at 9:45 of the second period on a perfect pass from Vaive.
Chicago tied the game at 2-2 on a disputed goal by Darryl Sutter, but Toronto went ahead again at 3-2 on a goal by Vaive.
The go-ahead goal came after Chicago defenseman Behn Wilson whiffed at the puck at the point. Marian Stastny stole the puck and skated down the ice to the right of Black Hawk goalie Murray Bannerman then got Bannerman out of position and passed the puck to Vaive on the left.
Steve Thomas gave Toronto it's 4-2 lead at 7:10 of the third period with Russ Courtnall and Clark getting assists. The Blackhawks pulled their goalie with one minute remaining and Olczyk scored for Chicago with 18 seconds left in the game.
The first period ended in a 1-1 tie as Toronto managed to score with only 17 seconds left. Off a faceoff in Chicago's end, Tom Fergus got the puck out to Chris Kotsopoulos at the blueline and he slapped the puck past Bannerman.
Chicago got the game's first goal at 8:07 on a crisp passing demonstration from Denis Savard to Steve Larmer back to Savard to Al Secord, who sent the puck by Toronto goalie Don Edwards.
