Darcy Tucker scored the only goal in a shootout and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

Mats Sundin scored twice and had an assist, and Bryan McCabe also scored and had an assist to help Toronto win back-to-back games for the first time since Feb. 4-7.

With the victory, the Maple Leafs remained tied with the New York Islanders for 10th place in the Eastern Conference - five points behind eighth-place Montreal for the final playoff spot. The Bruins are tied for 12th, 10 points behind Montreal.

Jason Allison also scored for Toronto.

Tucker scored on Toronto's second attempt in the shootout, faking right and then shooting it past goalie Tim Thomas.

Marco Sturm scored twice, and Marty Reasoner and Glen Murray added goals for the Bruins, who have lost six straight.

Sturm missed the net on Boston's final attempt, giving Toronto the victory.

Backup goalie Mikael Tellqvist stopped Brad Boyes and Patrice Bergeron in the shootout. Tellqvist had 28 saves in place of Ed Belfour, who is day-to-day with a sore back.

Tellqvist robbed Boyes with a glove save at the end of overtime.

Toronto rallied from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits.

Reasoner gave Boston a 1-0 on the power play at 5:49 of the first, but Sundin tied it by converting Tomas Kaberle's drop pass at 15:14 of the first.

But just 31 seconds later, Sturm skated in front of the net untouched before putting the puck past Tellqvist.

Sturm made it 3-1 36 seconds into the second by scoring from the side of the net.

But Allison redirected Tie Domi's pass into the net at 7:39 of the second after jumping over the boards.

Murray stole the puck from Allison and scored at 12:47, giving Boston a 4-2 lead.

But Toronto scored twice on a two-man advantage after Hal Gill received a cross- checking penalty and Nick Boynton a minor and 10-minute misconduct for arguing with the officials.

McCabe followed with a shot that hit off the post and back to Sundin, who scored on the rebound at 15:08. Just 35 seconds later, McCabe tied it at 4 with a hard shot.

It was by no means an artistic success, but every player in the Toronto Maple Leafs' dressing room marked this down as the best game of the season.

The Maple Leafs survived their familiar penchant for taking penalties in bunches to dispel the black cloud that has hung over them for the month of January by beating the Florida Panthers 4-2. The win, the Leafs' first since Jan. 7, broke an eight-game National Hockey League losing streak, the team's longest in almost 10 years.

Even though the Leafs had a 4-1 lead midway through the third period, getting their fourth on a power-play goal by Jeff O'Neill, they did not exactly cruise to the win. They gave the Panthers far too many power plays for that.

But after Panthers centre Joe Nieuwendyk scored on a delayed penalty call against the Leafs at 13 minutes 50 seconds of the third period, the Panthers could not get any closer.
The main reason for this was Leafs goaltender Ed Belfour, who turned in his best performance since late December. There was a scare late in the third period when Belfour was knocked down by Nieuwendyk behind the Leafs' net. Belfour lay on the ice in apparent agony, but recovered quickly when Nieuwendyk was sent to the penalty box.

The atmosphere in the Leaf dressing room, which had lightened considerably a few days ago when their leading goal scorer, Darcy Tucker, returned to the lineup, was positively giddy.

Several hours before the game, Leafs defenceman Bryan McCabe decided, on the advice of medical staff, not to return from his groin injury. That made it nine games the Leafs were missing their best defenceman, which has caused much of their recent troubles.

However, since the ice surface at the Panthers' arena is one of the worst in the NHL, and groin injuries are the easiest to aggravate, McCabe's return was put off until tonight's game in Tampa against the Lightning.

McCabe may also get another boost as long as he stays healthy.

But the Leafs' bad luck on defence isn't over yet. Alexander Khavanov was lost to a foot injury in the second period last night. It was not immediately known if the defenceman can play tonight.

The Leafs are a team that cannot tolerate prosperity, but they nonetheless managed to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.

This despite their many efforts to sabotage it by taking penalties.

In the second period, the Leafs handed the Panthers six power plays, including two 5-on-3 advantages. But they escaped with the lead by holding the Panthers to one power-play goal and scoring a power-play goal themselves.

Then, early in the third period, the Panthers made their own run to the penalty box, allowing the Leafs to regain a two-goal lead.

On a 5-on-3 power play, Mats Sundin fired a pass from the point to Jason Allison at the side of the net. Allison stopped the pass with his skate and flipped the puck across the crease to Tucker, who flipped it into the top corner at 2:16 to put the Leafs ahead 3-1.

The Leafs can also thank Belfour for coming back strong after a couple of bad outings. He faced 31 shots in the first two periods because of all the power plays and was Toronto's best penalty-killer.

On one of Belfour's best saves, the puck actually wound up in the net, but the goal was waved off by the referee. Panthers forward Rob Globke went in alone on Belfour in the first period and the goaltender made a nice save. Globke then collided with the net and knocked it loose as his linemate, Serge Payer, swiped the puck into the net. But it was quickly waved off by the referee because the net was off its posts.

This was not Payer's night. Early in the second period, with the Leafs ahead 1-0, he fired the puck into the net only to see that one waved off as well. One of the referees whistled the play dead just before Payer's shot.

A few seconds before that, Sundin was robbed by Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo on a breakaway. Leafs defencemen Tomas Kaberle sent Sundin away with a stretch pass up the middle. Sundin tried a shot high to Luongo's glove side and the goaltender snared it.

The Leafs opened the scoring at 12:24 of the first period when rookie defenceman Jay Harrison got his first NHL point. Harrison, called up from the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies last week after Aki Berg hurt his ribs, fired a shot from the point and Chad Kilger fought off a Florida defenceman to put the rebound into the net.

Kyle Wellwood gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead at 14:12 of the second period when he made a nice play to field a Sundin rebound, keep it away from a Panthers defenceman and then score on his own rebound.

The Panthers scored a few minutes later with a power-play goal.

Teams around the NHL may be interested in adding Mats Sundin, but the Toronto Maple Leafs, contrary to rumours, aren't interested in trading their captain."I have not brought his name up," said Leafs general manager John Ferguson Wednesday.

"I know there are a number of teams that certainly would value the services that he provides to us, as we do."

With the struggling Leafs on the playoff bubble, some in Toronto's media have postulated that Ferguson may shop Sundin – and his lucrative contract – to a Stanley Cup contender for younger, cheaper players.

Losers of six in a row, the Leafs sit in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, one point back of the Atlanta Thrashers for the final playoff spot with 34 games remaining.

Sundin is in the fourth year of a five-year contract that pays him $6.84 million US per year.

The Leafs also have an option for the 2007-2008 season that, if exercised, would pay Sundin $4.56 million plus a $760,000 signing bonus.

Some say Sundin, who will turn 35 next month, isn't worth that kind of money anymore.

Sundin only has 10 goals this season and is on pace for one of his least productive years ever.

In his defence, Sundin missed much of the season's first month with a serious eye injury. He also didn't play during the NHL's lockout, so some rink rust is to be expected after a year-long layoff.

Ferguson argues Sundin's contribution to the Leafs can't be measured just by statistics.

"He's a tremendous leader for us and that leadership is going to help us get back to where we need to be," said Ferguson.

Sundin has played in Toronto since 1994. He has a no-trade clause in his contract and says he isn't interested in moving to another city.

"My only concern is to be with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and I don't want to go play anywhere else," Sundin said.

"My only concern is to play my best and help this team make the playoffs.

"Once you make it in the playoffs, anything can happen. The Calgary Flames showed that [by finishing sixth in the National Hockey League's Western Conference and making it to the 2004 Stanley Cup final]."

The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled defenceman Jay Harrison from the AHL Marlies on Friday to replace injured blue-liner Aki Berg.

Berg sustained a rib injury in Thursday's 8-4 loss to Buffalo, Toronto's seventh consecutive defeat. Berg joins defencemen Bryan McCabe (groin) and Carlo Colaiacovo (concussion) and forwards Eric Lindros (wrist) and Darcy Tucker (ribs) among the injured Leafs.

McCabe, Lindros and Tucker all skated in practice Friday. McCabe, the team's leading scorer with 49 points (15-34), said Friday he hoped to be ready for the team's road trip next week through Florida, Tampa and Washington. Tucker hoped to play in Saturday's home game against equally slumping Montreal but wasn't sure if he would. Lindros's return is still unknown.

A groin injury will keep Bryan McCabe, the NHL's top-scoring defenceman, out of the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup for Tuesday night's game against the Vancouver Canucks.

A frustrated McCabe hopes to miss just the one game and wants to be ready when Toronto hosts Phoenix on Saturday night. "It sucks," McCabe said Monday as he leaned against a wall at GM Place. "I pride myself on not having to miss games but this is something I can't mess around with.

"I don't want to make it any worse. We have a lot of games in a lot of nights over the next three months of the season. Hopefully I'll take a couple days off and I'll be fine."

McCabe, who has 49 points including 34 assists in 42 games, said he hurt himself in Saturday's 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers. That came after the Leafs lost 1-0 to Calgary on Friday night.

"I came out of the penalty box there and, on the first stride, I felt it right away," said McCabe, who played 95 games over two seasons with Vancouver. "It's a fluke thing.
"Stuff like that happens on back-to-back nights. I don't think it's too serious."

Carlo Colaiacovo, who missed several games with a wrist injury, will replace McCabe in the lineup.

McCabe is also a reserve player for the Canadian Olympic team that will play at the Turin Winter Games, which begin next month.

Vancouver defenceman Ed Jovanovski (groin) and Adam Foote of the Columbus Blue Jackets (hip) are also out with injuries.

Leaf coach Pat Quinn, who is also the Olympic team head coach, said he's not worried right now about any of the three not being ready for the Turin Games. But if the players don't get healthy soon it could cause a problem, Quinn added.

"If they are injured for a long time and we need to use the games over there to have them come back to play, it's not a very good idea," he said. "Hopefully (they) will get back in and get some hockey played.

"We will have some decisions to make if they are not really healthy going over there. We will have to maybe think of some other alternatives."

McCabe is just the latest Leaf to fall to injury.

Eric Lindros is out with ligament damage in his right wrist. Goaltender Ed Belfour, captain Mats Sundin and Tie Domi have all missed games this year.

Despite that, Toronto still has won seven-of-eight games.

"We've had a number of injuries this year but we seem to find a way to battle through them and still compete hard on a nightly basis," said Darcy Tucker, who also is nursing injured ribs but expects to play against the Canucks.

Quinn said the injuries can partly be blamed on the tough NHL schedule all teams face.

"We play too many games, often, in too short a time," said Quinn. "These players, we expect them to be going 100 per cent every night.

"A lot try to give their best every night and they just don't have time to recover. The element of fatigue starts to take over and that's when you start to get, not only muscle-pull injuries, but you find you're not mentally as sharp and can't get out of the way of some of these things that happen. That's why I think we have so many injuries right now throughout the league."