The Toronto Maple Leafs excel at losing in the last moments of hockey games. We saw it last game against Carolina, and again in this game against Tampa Bay. And to make matters worse, the goalie for the Lightning, Karri Ramo, was playing in his first NHL start. It should have been an easy task to score against a completely unseasoned goalie. Glenn Healy stated, prior to game, that Ramo “was not ready for the NHL”. He was sure ready for the Maple Leafs.

Forgetting for a moment the lack of goal scoring on the Leafs side, the overall game was not bad. The Leafs out-shot Tampa Bay 32-21, and Toskala made some really big saves to keep the game close. Matt Stajan got the Leafs on the board at 16:36 of the second period, but was quickly countered with a snap shot by Jason Ward of the Lightning.

The game remained tied until 19:18 of the third period (please note that this is within the last minute of the game) when Vincent Lecavalier slapped home a nice pass from St. Louis to put the Lightning up by 1.

The last few minutes of play were sloppy on the Leafs part, as seems to be the way these days. 55 minute hockey games seems to be an ongoing theme for this season.