Harold Druken scored two goals and David Ling had a goal and two assists to lead the St. John's Maple Leafs to a 4-2 victory over the Manitoba Moose Tuesday night.
For the third consecutive game and only the third time this season, the Moose scored the opening goal. 4:13 into the first, Jeff Heerema one-timed a pass over to Jason King who scored his tenth of the year. Kevin Bieksa took the initial shot but it deflected off a St. John's defender right to Heerema.
>> Read tonight's game notes
St. John's responded less than three minutes later as Druken picked up a pass from Brendan Bell, walked around the Moose defender and put the puck in the net. It was Druken's first goal of the season.
The game looked to be heading into the first intermission knotted at 1-1 but Kyle Wellwood scored a late powerplay goal with 52 seconds to play in the opening period to give St. John's their first lead of the two-game series. Matt Stajan and David Ling assisted on the play.
The former Moose Druken scored again just 3:29 into the third period on a goal assisted by Kyle Wellwood and David Ling.
After two periods, the Moose were up 23-22 on the shot clock but trailing 3-1.
It didn't take the Baby Leafs long to get the insurance marker as the third period got underway. David Ling scored 38 seconds into the third from Kyle Wellwood and Ian White to make it 4-1.
The Leafs held on to the three-goal lead until there was 2:02 left in the game. Tomas Mojzis scored for the Moose to make it a two-goal game at 4-2. King and Ryan Kesler assisted.
>> View full box score
NOTES: Jason King regained the league points scoring lead from teammate Peter Sarno with a two point performance. King now has 13 points on the season (10 goals, 3 assists)... Jimmy Roy (veteran) and Nathan Smith (abdomen) were the scratches tonight. Smith is probable for Friday's game.
