CHICAGO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the playoffs with the least amount of points in the standings and very little post-season experience. All that matters little against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Toronto posted a 5-3 victory Wednesday night over the Blackhawks to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five Norris Division semifinal series. It was the seventh Toronto triumph in nine games against Chicago, the Norris Division champion.
'This team brings out the best inus. The crowd is real loud and keeps us in the game. We played really well against them all year long and it gives us confidence,' said goalie Ken Wregget, who stopped 35 Chicago shots for his fourth win in five games against Chicago.
Toronto missed the playoffs the last two seasons and has only nine players with more than 10 playoff appearances. Chicago, on the other hand, has 18 such players in their lineup.
'The team was relaxed,' said Wregget. 'It doesn't help to get nervous and we weren't.'
'When we had a chance to get the puck in the first 10 minutes, we decided we were just going to dump it,' said Toronto's Gary Leeman, who had a goal and two assists. 'It settled their team down and settled the crowd down.'
The Blackhawks were missing left wing Al Secord, who played in all 80 regular-season games and scored 31 goals. He missed the game with a bad case of the flu.
'Of course we miss him, but we should be able to cover up for Al,' said defenseman Jack O'Callahan. 'I know we can beat them. No one is pushing the panic button.'
'It's all in our heads,' said wing Steve Larmer about the Toronto jinx. 'We play them like we play anybody else.'
Toronto jumped to a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Steve Thomas at 3:46 of the first period. The Maple Leafs had a two-man advantage after a double minor was called on Curt Fraser and a slashing call against Steve Ludzik.
Doug Wilson scored at 11:49 of the first period to even the score 1-1. Toronto went ahead 2-1 at 17:22 of the first when Wendel Clark stole a bouncing puck from O'Callahan past the Chicago blueline and beat goalie Bob Sauve 1 on 1.
There was no scoring in the second period, but Chicago tied the game at 4:48 of the third on a shot by Darryl Sutter. Skating backwards in front of the net, Sutter picked the puck from a pile of legs 12-feet in front of Wregget and backhanded it into the net.
But Leeman got the most important goal, scoring 81 seconds later on a centering pass from Thomas. That broke the Blackhawks, who allowed goals from Walt Poddubny and Thomas in the next 11 minutes before getting the last goal from Tom Lysiak at 18:29.
