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March 11, 2003
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Mats Sundin figured he'd have 1,000 NHL points sooner than he actually did.
Sundin scored his 31st goal of the season with 5:48 to play Tuesday night to reach the milestone and give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Sundin went six games without a goal and had just one assist over that span. He was stuck on 999 points since March 6.
``You try not to think about it and you say to yourself `It's not a big deal' but in the back of your head, it might have been,'' Sundin said. ``More than anything, it's nice to get it behind and get it over with and move on. Obviously, we have more important things to look forward to.''
Sundin reached the milestone when he skated from behind the net and backhanded the puck past goalie Tommy Salo. The Toronto bench then emptied to congratulate Sundin.
``I think he was pressing,'' Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. ``He hasn't been himself in the last couple of weeks but hopefully it's gone now. It's a great achievement.''
Alexander Mogilny and Tomas Kaberle also scored 38 seconds apart early in the third period for the Maple Leafs, who stopped a four-game winless streak.
Ryan Smyth and Mike Comrie scored for Edmonton.
Smyth opened the scoring at 5:54 of the second period when he easily netted a cross-crease pass from rookie Ales Hemsky behind Ed Belfour. Hemsky had just intercepted a clearing attempt, circled the net and passed off to Smyth.
Mogilny tied it 1-1 as he scored his 28th goal just 16 seconds into the third period. And then Kaberle put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 just 38 seconds later.
Mogilny put a pass from Nik Antropov behind Salo after Antropov stripped defenseman Eric Brewer of the puck in the corner. Kaberle scored when Owen Nolan, playing his second game for Toronto, passed to the defenseman who beat Salo.
``We never recovered from the first minute of the third period,'' Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said.
The Maple Leafs had only nine shots after two periods but scored two goals on the first two shots of the third.
``We look like a real preoccupied club right now,'' Quinn said. ``We had a lot of people not working very hard tonight. We weren't putting any pressure on them ourselves. Fortunately, we were only down one starting the third.
``It was more lucky than anything.''
Comrie scored with eight seconds left in the game.
Hemsky generated numerous scoring chances, including a couple of breakaways. He tried to deke Belfour on one opportunity but was denied on the backhand as Belfour made a pad stop.
Belfour finished with 26 saves.
``It's tough to get over this game,'' MacTavish said. ``We really self-destructed. We beat ourselves.''
Edmonton captain Jason Smith returned to the lineup after missing 12 games because of a shoulder injury, sustained in a 5-4 Oilers win over Toronto on Feb. 11.
Defenseman Glen Wesley played his first game for the Maple Leafs after beingacquired from the Carolina Hurricanes. He was paired with Bryan McCabe. Notes Janne Niinimaa played his 399th game with the Oilers. ... Toronto LW Gary Roberts left the game with a strain to his lower body and did not return. ... Edmonton was 0-for-6 on the power play, including a two-man advantage inthe third. Toronto didn't have a power play in the game.
Updated on Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 1:38 am, EST
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