Lucky breaks a rare treat for Leafs

The National Staff

• Last Updated: November 22. 2009 5:53PM UAE / November 22. 2009 1:53PM GMT

Toronto’s Niklas Hagman slots the winning shootout goal past the Caps’ Semyon Varlamov. Darren Calabrese / AP Photo

The Toronto Maple Leafs, the NFL’s most valuable franchise and its least successful this season, finally caught a few breaks on Saturday.

The cellar-dwelling Leafs ended a run of five successive losses with a 2-1 shoot-out win over the high-flying Washington Capitals, the Southeast division leaders and the second team overall in the NHL.

Phil Kessel and Niklas Hagman both scored in the shoot-out as the Leafs, who are last in the overall standings, registered just their fourth win from 21 games this season. The Leafs are still last in the standings, but their embattled coach, Ron Wilson, was happy with the rare victory.

“I thought we played very well,” said Wilson. “In spite of what a lot of people believe, I think our attitude has been pretty good. We earned our breaks with some pretty good play.”

The Leafs have not enjoyed much luck this season but fortune was on their side against the Capitals.

Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring for the Caps in the opening period, and Hagman tied the game with a lucky goal when the puck deflected in off his hip in the second.

Kessel and Hagman both scored in the shoot-out while Eric Fehr and Ovechkin failed to get past the Toronto goalie Vesa Toskala, who made 31 saves in the game.

“We’ve played hard the last couple of weeks, but we haven’t had any breaks,” Toskala said.

“They hit the post a few times and Hagman’s goal went off his pants, but it’s nice to get some breaks for a change.”

Daniel Alfredsson led the way for the Ottawa Senators with two goals and an assist as they beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3.

The Senators’ defenceman Filip Kuba had a goal and three assists, but the victory came at a cost, with the Ottawa netminder Pascal Laclaire missing the third period following a collision with Buffalo’s Jochen Hecht.

Brian Elliott played the final period in goal for Ottawa and made 16 saves.

“I don’t know how fast my heart was going when I got in there,” Elliott said. “The guys played really well in front of me. I felt I played pretty good and obviously they spotted me that lead and that helped as well.”

Jarome Iginla scored a hat-trick as the Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2.

The winger now has 11 goals in his past nine games.

“We were assertive, we played an intelligent game, and we were smart,” said the Calgary coach Brent Sutter.

“Iginla played a whale of a game, just not the fact that he scored. He was just rock solid in a lot of areas.”

Jonathan Toews scored two goals and had an assist as the Chicago Blackhawks won their sixth game in a row, a comfortable 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

“We needed to be a better road team, and we’re off to a good start with that on this trip,” Toews said.

“That first game in Calgary [a 7-1 win] was a big one and we continued to play well tonight.

“We’re on a roll right now. We’re not thinking about our six-game streak though, we’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”

The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1, while a brace from David Perron helped the St Louis Blues beat the New York Islanders 4-1.

“It definitely wasn’t our game,” said the Islanders winger Trent Hunter.

“Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get your legs going after playing the night before, but that wasn’t the case. We can’t use that as an excuse the way that we played last night.”

Goals from Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Ryane Clowe gave the NHL-leading San Jose Sharks a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks, while Stephane Robidas scored twice as the Dallas Stars beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3.

* With agencies