It was the same old song as last night – Toronto stayed on their dirty horse. They committed several first period penalties and prodded our players from the get go, setting the tone for the game.

It was to no avail, just like in their arena. The Red Wings couldn’t score, but neither could the Maple Leafs. Jimmy Howard sat out with a 48-hour groin pull, allowing Jonas Gustavsson to take his place in net. The Swede was our MVP, stopping one breakaway with the end of his extended leg. Coincidentally, that was also the undoing of our opponent’s goalie.

It stayed scoreless for sixty minutes. Overtime, too, winded down without a goal, despite Detroit’s best efforts. One slap shot from Tomas Tatar banged off the left goal post. With under twenty seconds, we controlled a face off down by our own net and took the puck up the ice. Kronwall found Henrik Zetterberg, who let one fly, and the puck sailed into the back of the net!

Our crowd was on fire. They had been going hard since the third period started, and my dad and I hugged in excitement. What a relief. Toronto’s net minder hit it slightly with his knee pad and assumed it would clear, but he didn’t follow it all the way through like Gustavsson. The dirty snarfs left our arena with their heads down.