The Toronto Maple Leafs continued their pre-season with back to back games with the Philadelphia Flyers. Like the two game set with Ottawa, this min pre-season series also saw the teams each win a game. Both games required a shootout to decide a winner, with the Leafs taking the first game in London, and the Flyers taking game two in Toronto. The first game saw Toronto battle back twice from one goal deficits to tie the game at 2 - 2. A marathon shootout went 11 rounds, before the Leafs came away with the win. Colby Armstrong was the offensive hero, scoring the game equalising goal, and the shootout winner. James Reimer was simply phenomenal during the game, in which he stopped all but one shot, and then stopped seven out of ten shots in the shootout. Reimer, Armstrong, Versteeg, Brown and Richmond were the Maple Leafs best players.
In game two, the Blue & White dressed its most experienced NHL roster to date with Giguere playing the full sixty minutes. For fifty minutes it looked like all that NHL talent was going to pay off, as the Maple Leafs held a 3 - 1 lead over the Flyers on goals from Versteeg, Kessel, and Phaneuf. However, a combination of sitting back trying to protect the lead, and some bad bounces allowed Philadelphia to square the game at 3 - 3. The Leafs had the game winner in overtime via Phil Kessel, but the goal was wrongfully disallowed due to poor referee positioning, and the unavailability to use video review in pre - season.. The Flyers capitalized on their opportunities in the shootout. Despite the loss, the Leafs power play was once again potent, and their penalty killing was formidable. The Toronto Maple Leafs are back in action again, this time in a back to back battle with their QEW rivals the Buffalo Sabres, starting tonight at 7pm on LEAFS TV.
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