Third Line the Charm for Leafs

Darcy Tucker is the first to admit his goals aren’t always pretty.

As long as they count is what matters to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Thanks to a gritty second effort, Tucker scored 1:18 into the third period Thursday night, lifting the Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils to open their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

“I go to the net hard,” Tucker said. “I play the game as hard as I can each and every shift.”

The same can be said for Tucker’s linemates as the Maple Leafs’ third line--including Wendel Clark and Dmitri Khristich--stole the show.

“Our line is a hard-work line. We know our role,” Tucker said. “Clarkie’s a shooter, I’m a crasher and Khristich is a great playmaker. We’ve got a little bit of everything on our line.”

Defenseman Dmitri Yushkevich also scored, and Curtis Joseph stopped 32 shots as the Maple Leafs won their third consecutive playoff game.

Petr Sykora scored for the Devils, who lost for the first time in the playoffs after a four-game sweep of the Florida Panthers.

The Devils seemed to do everything right but win. They outshot the Maple Leafs, 33-21, and also stifled Toronto’s explosive top line, centered by Mats Sundin.

Unfortunately for the Devils, they came up empty.

“I thought we had enough chances to win the game tonight,” Devil Coach Larry Robinson said, “but we just didn’t put our chances to good use.”

Less than two minutes into the third period, Devil goalie Martin Brodeur stopped a shot by Tucker but couldn’t control the rebound. Tucker got the puck and snapped it behind the sprawled goalie for the winning goal.