Leafs dominate Canadiens 6-3

The lead held until a wild second period that featured each team score three times

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TORONTO (AP) - Mikhail Grabovski is settling in quite nicely with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Grabovski had a goal and an assist and linemate Niklas Hagman scored twice to lead Toronto to a 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Grabovski has six goals and two assists in the last four games, teaming with Hagman and Nikolai Kulemin to form a nice line. Grabovski had three goals in 27 career games with Montreal over the last two seasons and has seven in 15 for the Maple Leafs, who acquired him in a trade over the summer.

“He’s been our best player for two weeks,” coach Ron Wilson said. “He’s been a dominant player. That’s why he’s got seven goals now.”

Grabovski was gracious when asked about his time in Montreal after Saturday’s game, but Hagman said he was pretty fired up to prove something to his former team.

“For sure he wanted to show the coach and show the other players on the team that he is a good player,” Hagman said. “I think that he did a pretty good job.”

Nik Antropov, Pavel Kubina and Alexei Ponikarovsky also scored for the Maple Leafs (6-5-4), who outshot their opponent for the 11th straight game.

Robert Lang, Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu had Montreal’s goals.

The Habs (8-2-2) were playing for the second straight night and weren’t able to match the pace set by the speedy Leafs.

A scary play early in the game helped Toronto score first. Montreal forward Tom Kostopoulos slammed Mike Van Ryn into the end boards from behind and was ejected with a major for boarding.

Van Ryn lay on the ice for several minutes with a cut on his forehead and is expected to miss a month.

“It was a dirty hit,” Leafs forward Matt Stajan said. “It’s something that can’t happen in the game. Luckily, we made them pay.”

The incident left Kostopoulos visibly shaken. He planned to give Van Ryn a call to apologize.

Source: Read the rest at NHL.com