The captain of a team is the spiritual leader of a club, a go-to guy who will lead his teammates by example. The Leafs new captain, Craig Mills, did just that as he scored a goal and an assist and played his heart as the Leafs defeated the Manitoba Moose 5-4 in their home opener before 6,247 fans crammed into Mile One Stadium.
Coach Lou Crawford heaped praise on his captain. “He’s the trademark lunchpail guy we need to have,” the coach said. “You build off people like him”. For the first time this season, the line of Bob Wren, Josh Holden and Brad Leeb were held off the scoresheet, but other players took the reigns for them.
The Leafs were on fire early on, helped by Mikael Tellqvist, who played the first half of the game very strongly, with a number of big saves to keep the Leafs in the game when they got into some penalty trouble. Paul Healey opened the scoring at 7:10 of the 1st, with a lovely assist by Brad Boyes and Aaron Gavey to take the early lead. After Zenith Komarniski tallied his second of the year for the Moose to tie it, the Leafs tallied three straight. Doug Doull blew a howitzer past a startled Tyler Moss for his 2nd of the year at 11:02 (from Nathan Barrett), Craig Mills goal at 19:59 from Alexei Ponikarovsky and Luca Cereda and Luca Cereda tallied his second point of the night when he scored his second of the year at 6:25 of the second from Mills and Ponikarovsky. Cereda likes the way things are going for the Leafs so far this season. “We have a good team,” the sophomore Leafs forward said. “Everybody is on the same page, we’re scoring goals, our goalies are great and we keep working hard.”
The 4-1 Leafs lead evaporated quickly though late in the second as the Moose got goals from Brandon Reid and Pat Kavanaugh to make it 4-3. However, the Leafs went up 5-3 when defenceman Ric Jackman, in St. John’s on a conditioning assignment, tallied his first of the season at 11:40 of the 3rd from Paul Healey and Aaron Gavey. The Moose made it 5-4 when Ryan Ready scored but couldn’t get the equalizer despite peppering Tellqvist with 44 shots. The two teams meet again tonight at Mile One.
LEAFS NOTES:
Corner Brook native Jason King got an assist on Kavanaugh’s goal for the Moose. Meanwhile, former Leaf Jeff Farkas, who had been on fire with 8 points, was held off the scoresheet, thanks to the strong defensive play of Anders Eriksson and Jackman.
