Music: {allcanada} Kessel scores 10th goal to lift Leafs to 4-3 win

Saturday, October 29, 2011

{allcanada} Kessel scores 10th goal to lift Leafs to 4-3 win

TORONTO (AP)—Phil Kessel (notes) scored his league-leading 10th goal midway through the third period to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Mikhail Grabovski (notes), Tim Connolly (notes) and Clarke MacArthur (notes) also scored for the Maple Leafs (7-2-1).

Matt Cooke (notes), Chris Kunitz (notes) and Evgeni Malkin (notes) scored for the weary Penguins (8-3-2), who were playing for the 13th time in 26 days. The Penguins were also without several stars as Jordan Staal (notes) is sidelined with a lower-body injury, Sidney Crosby (notes) continues to recover from a concussion and starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (notes) sat out.

Kessel and Pittsburgh's James Neal (notes) entered the evening tied for the NHL lead in goals. Kessel edged ahead shortly after the Penguins erased their third one-goal deficit of the game and Pittsburgh goalie Jonas Gustavsson (notes) made sure it stood up by stacking his pads on a great opportunity by Neal with less than 5 minutes to play.

MacArthur's second goal of the season put Toronto ahead 3-2 at 3:08 of the third period before Malkin tied it with a one-timer during a 5-on-3 power play at 7:59.

Kessel then got the game winner at 10:08 as the puck barely touched his stick before he fired a shot past Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson (notes).

Malkin had a tough start as he was in the penalty box for Toronto's first two goals. Grabovski tipped home a point shot by Dion Phaneuf (notes) at 11:31 of the first period.

After Cooke tied the score at 10:21 of the second before Connolly knocked home a rebound for his first goal with the Leafs a little more than a minute later to put Toronto back ahead.

Kunitz scored on the power play to tie the score again with 4:54 left in the second period.

Gustavsson, making his third straight start in place of the injured James Reimer (notes) (whiplash-like symptoms), stopped 37 shots. He made a big save on Steve Sullivan (notes) in the first period before shutting the door in the final minutes— picking up wins in consecutive appearances for the first time since March 2010.

NOTES: Former Leafs captain Mats Sundin (notes) was in attendance and received a long ovation during the first period. Sundin's No. 13 will be honored on Feb. 11 before a game with Montreal … Penguins forward Steve Sullivan is wearing a No. 3 sticker on his helmet in honor of good friend Wade Belak (notes), who died Aug. 31.