The Toronto Maple Leafs lost Tuesday to the Finnish goaltending prospect they traded away.
Rookie Tuukka Rask was terrific in his NHL debut, turning aside 30 shots in backstopping the visiting Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the Maple Leafs before a crowd of 19,441 at the Air Canada Centre.
Mats Sundin bumps into Marc Savard in Tuesday's 4-2 Maple Leafs loss.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
"Very good, very good," Rask said. "I didn't expect this kind of game.
"I think I handled it well. I'm happy."
Chuck Kobasew had two goals and one assist and Marco Sturm had two assists for the Bruins (10-7-2), who beat Toronto 5-2 last Thursday.
Phil Kessel and P.J. Axelsson had the other goals in support of Rask, who played with poise from the outset.
"I didn't think we threw enough long ones at him," Maple Leafs head coach Paul Maurice said. "But he was good in tight."
Rask, 20, was drafted 21st overall by Toronto two years ago, then traded to Boston for goaltender Andrew Raycroft on June 24, 2006.
"Of course, it means a lot," Rask said. "It was fun to play, to show them that I'm good enough to play at this level."
Raycroft was respectable last season, but the Maple Leafs swung a trade with the San Jose Sharks for Vesa Toskala on June 22.
Toskala signed for $8 million US over two years, but has yet to pay dividends, much less establish himself as Toronto's No. 1 puck stopper.
Toskala finished with 21 saves versus Boston, but let Kobasew's weak shot from the slot slip under his right arm for what was the decisive goal at 16:29 of the third period.
Kobasew later clinched the win with an empty-net goal, his ninth of the season with 27 seconds remaining.
Bryan McCabe and Mats Sundin scored in a losing cause for the Maple Leafs (8-9-5), who were coming off an impressive 3-0 win over the Ottawa Senators.
'Very disappointing'
Tomas Kaberle had two assists, giving him 300 in the NHL.
"A game like tonight, where we were up two goals and let Boston get back into the game, it was certainly very disappointing," Sundin said. "It was an important game for us."
"The frustration now is trying to get a good solid defensive game out of our team," Maurice said. "We give up 25 shots, not a whole lot, but now we are not generating much offence at the other end."
Toronto took a 1-0 lead on McCabe's fourth, a power-play goal 15:10 into the contest.
Sundin surprised Rask with a slapshot from just inside the blue-line for his 11th at 15:36 of the second.
But Kobasew gained control of the puck behind the net and set up Kessel in the slot for his seventh, a power-play marker with 48 seconds left in the period.
The Bruins tied it 2-2 when Marc Savard dropped the puck to a trailing Axelsson, who swept in his first at 9:52 of the third.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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