Revenge Is Quick for Yake : NHL: Former Duck scores early against his old teammates as Toronto wins, 3-1.

How different is playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs from playing for the Mighty Ducks?

Well, you never get set up by Doug Gilmour playing for the Ducks.

Terry Yake, traded to Toronto in September even though he was the Ducks’ leading scorer in their first season, has played sporadically for Toronto. But Coach Pat Burns made sure he was in the lineup against his old team Thursday at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Gilmour made sure Yake was in the right spot at the right time, and Yake scored the first goal of the game in the Maple Leafs’ 3-1 victory.

“Dougie called it in the circle,” said Yake, who set up behind Gilmour as Gilmour took a faceoff in the right circle. Gilmour beat Anatoli Semenov on the draw and sent the puck to Yake, whose quick shot beat Guy Hebert high and just inside the left post. Yake looked almost stunned that revenge could come that fast and easy, and Toronto led, 1-0, at 15:19 of the first.

“It was just kind of a bang-bang play,” said Yake, who had been scratched the three previous games. “I stood there and made sure it went in. I was standing there in the slot. I wasn’t going to go ride my stick down the ice or anything foolish like that. It was the first goal. There was a lot of hockey left.”

But as Yake knows, the Ducks aren’t made for coming from behind.

“We were looking to jump out and get an early lead,” Yake said. “We knew Anaheim would be hard-pressed to score goals, or they have been lately.

“We were trying to frustrate them in the one area they’ve been frustrated most.

“It was like when I was back in Anaheim. We used to manage to slow down a lot of good fast teams. Tonight we wanted to do the same to Anaheim.”

Gilmour scored the eventual game-winner off a pass from Mats Sundin with the Maple Leafs on a power play at 18:03 of the first, and Toronto goalie Felix Potvin shut out the Ducks until 7:56 of the third, when Shaun Van Allen scored his first goal of the season. The goal light had gone on a couple of minutes earlier when a shot by Paul Kariya hit the post, but referee Stephen Walkom ruled it no goal after a review by video goal judge Ed Butler showed the puck was never in the net.

The game marked the 10th time in 15 games the Ducks have been held to two goals or fewer.

Yake, who scored 52 points last season and has three goals and an assist in 10 games for the Maple Leafs, probably could have helped, but management decided in September that Yake no longer fit in and doubted he would have another 50-point season.

Rookies Valeri Karpov and John Lilley and veteran Joe Sacco were all playing ahead of Yake in September, and the fact that he tailed off badly in the second half last season made him the odd man out. General Manager Jack Ferreira traded him for forward David Sacco, now in the minor leagues. Karpov has gotten off to a slow start, Lilley is in the minors and Joe Sacco has been injured.

“I’m happy with what we have,” Wilson said after the game. “I’m not worried about that. That’s looking at this negatively.”

Yake is fighting for playing time in Toronto, and David Sacco is hoping to get back to Anaheim.

“David, he showed some good flash when he came up,” said Pierre Gauthier, the Ducks’ assistant general manager. “This is his first full year as a pro. We’ll see more of him.”

As for the way the deal looks at the moment, Gauthier said a trade is like a marriage, “it’s for better and for worse.”

For one day, anyway, it was better for Yake.

“It’s always sweet to score a goal, and it’s always nice to get it against your old boys,” he said.

*

Duck notes

Defenseman Tom Kurvers, who has struggled defensively, was scratched for the second game in a row. . . . Goalie Guy Hebert has stopped 118 of the last 124 shots he has faced, but has won only one of the four games. . . . Yake engaged in a little gamesmanship with some of his ex-teammates. “You try to tell a guy he’s not as good as he is. He knows you’re joking, but it’s a little mind game. You work to get every advantage. They were doing the same thing back to me.”