OTTAWA – Carl Gunnarsson had a simple explanation for the sky-high shot totals peppered at Leaf goaltenders on a nightly basis and once more in the nations capital on Saturday evening. Eddie Royal Jersey . "You know what? I think its a conspiracy," Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report with a large, sarcastic grin in the bowels of the Canadian Tire Centre. "I think the guys counting the shots, theyre doubling up on it." Two nights after Jonathan Bernier stopped 48 of 50 shots in an overtime win against the Stars did James Reimer stop 47 of 50 in a shootout victory against the Senators, one that also snapped the Leafs seven-game road losing streak. The primary force in the teams success so far this season (16-11-3,) goaltending, after a slight dip under increasing strain in late November, have re-emerged as the backbone of victory in the early days of December. "When we get those wins on a night like this its their win," Gunnarsson said of the goaltenders, Reimer on this particular night. "We need them right now and theyre really showing [up.]" While they raced out to a 3-1 lead on goals from James van Riemsdyk, Phil Kessel and Jake Gardiner, the Leafs nearly fumbled victory away again on this night. Another late letdown, highlighted by continued discipline issues, saw the Senators push back with a pair of goals from Erik Condra and Erik Karlsson, the latter coming on a power-play midway through the third. "When we skate and we attack we can be a hockey club that can have success," said Randy Carlyle, pleased with the effort through two periods, but not so much in the third. "And when we sit back and receive the game, we allow the opposition to dictate the pace of the game." Only the efforts of Reimer kept Ottawa, now nine points back of Toronto in the Atlantic Division, from swiping the lead and two points entirely. "My job is to stop them, whether its 10 shots or 100 shots," said Reimer, who remains unbeaten in Ottawa. "We dont really care how many shots were giving up. Our job is just to stop the puck from going in the net." "We feel were fortunate to have the level of goaltending from Reimer and Bernier," said Carlyle. "We can go with either of them on any given night." Five Points 1. Challenges of a Busy Night Interestingly, Reimer explained that bloated shot totals arent what wear down a goaltender. "They threw a lot of pucks at the net," he said of the Senators, "but what tires a goaltender out on pretty much any team [is] their in-zone time. Its not necessarily the shots, its them working, cycling. Thats when youre in your crouch and youre looking at the pass across and youre moving trying to fight through traffic. Thats whats the most tiring." Regardless, the Leafs are forcing their goaltenders to be spectacular on too many nights. Theyve yielded 37 shots per game against this season, most in the NHL. 2. Reimers Capital City Dominance The unbeaten streak and brilliance for Reimer in the nations capital continued on Saturday. With the 47-save performance – and two more in a perfect shootout – Reimer improved to 7-0-0 lifetime at the Canadian Tire Centre with a .970 save percentage. The 25-year-old, for his part, had no explanation for his success in Ottawa, attributing it to simple randomness. Date Shots Faced Goals Against Jan. 11, 2011 33 1 Apr. 2, 2011 25 2 Feb. 4, 2012 49 0 Mar. 17, 2012 30 1 Mar. 30, 2013 31 0 Apr. 20, 2013 50 1 Dec. 7, 2013 50 3 3. Liles Season Debut John-Michael Liles hadnt played a game for the Leafs since Game 7 of a first round playoff series with Boston last May. He returned from the Marlies on Saturday, playing nearly 18 minutes alongside Mark Fraser against the Senators. "I thought he gave us a good game," said Carlyle of Liles. "He gave us what he does best. Hes a puck-moving defenceman. I thought he did a heck of a job for us." The 33-year-old, who has seen his role in the NHL dwindle in recent years, said he chose to assess his situation in the minors without negativity. "Theres an opportunity to dwell on it and maybe give the kind of woe is me but at the same time thats not really who I am," said Liles, recalled to help a struggling Toronto defence in their puck-moving pursuits. "That was something I tried to not let myself get caught up in." By all accounts, Liles had been terrific with the Marlies, totaling 13 points in 16 games. He credits Steve Spott, the Marlies head coach, for helping to ease his transition to the American League. "Spotter has been fantastic for me," said Liles. "He said he expected a lot of me [and] I expect a lot of myself." 4. Late Meltdowns Just as they did in near-defeat to the Stars on Thursday night, the Leafs very nearly let victory slip away against the Senators. Rather than attack with the lead, they simply sat back and saw it evaporate. "I guess its when we get a lead we freeze, do we freeze up or what are we doing?" said Carlyle, searching for answers himself. "Weve talked about it a lot. Were beating it to death. If we had the answer right now, we wouldve corrected it a long time ago." Ottawa cut the lead to one in the opening minutes of the third frame with Colin Greening outmaneuvering Gardiner for a puck in the Toronto zone, before feeding Condra high in the slot. Karlsson then tied it on the eighth Leaf minor penalty. "It seems we work hard for 40 minutes of the game and establish the type of game we want to play and then we take some penalties that change the momentum and we dont seem to be able to get it back," Carlyle said. "But we won the hockey game, found a way to win and thats the most important thing. Weve had some pretty down times here prior to the last two games, so no matter how you get the points, were going to take them and move on." "Its just a good feeling," said Gunnarsson. "We got the two points. Its not the way we wanted, but in the end the points matter so well take that." 5. Clarksons Production The first 20 games in a Maple Leafs jersey have passed rather quietly for David Clarkson. Clarkson has just two goals and five points, numbers that, while disappointing in the scope of his more recent production, align more closely to the bulk of his NHL career previously. On pace for just seven goals and 18 points this season, Clarkson averaged a not so dissimilar 12 goals and 24 points in his first four NHL seasons with the Devils. Though he played slightly less then – between 12-14 minutes – the 29-year-old garnered similar power-play time and a similar number of shots to those hes put forth this winter as a Leaf. His more recent outbursts,perhaps unsustainable, seemed to alter the conversation though as far as expectations for the Mimico, Ontario native are concerned. Two years ago, Clarkson posted career-highs with 30 goals and 46 points. That year he averaged a then-career-high of 2.85 shots per game, while shooting a career-high 13.2 per cent. While slightly less accurate the next year – a lockout shortened 48 games – Clarkson shot the puck with even greater frequency, establishing a new career-high of 3.75 shots per game. Also notable was the first unit power-play time he gathered in those two potent seasons, a fact of life thats diminished in Toronto to opportunity more closely aligned to those first four seasons in New Jersey. All of which is to say that Clarksons offensive production in the previous two seasons (120 games) may prove more exception than rule. Stats-Pack .970% - Career save percentage for James Reimer in Ottawa. 22 – Career goals for Phil Kessel in 44 games against the Senators. 42 – Career points for Kessel in 44 games against the Senators. 17:51 – Ice-time for John-Michael Liles in his season debut. 0.47 – Goals per game for James van Riemsdyk, who scored his 12th this season on Saturday. 6 – Consecutive games with a point for Kessel, who has four goals and eight points in that span. 28:32 – Ice-time for Dion Phaneuf, a season-high. 4 – Goals from the Toronto defence this season, Jake Gardiner scoring his first this season against the Senators. Special Teams Capsule PP: 1-6 Season: 24.7% PK: 6-8 Season: 78.2% Quote of the Night "You know what? I think its a conspiracy. I think the guys counting the shots, theyre doubling up on it, I think thats what it is." -Carl Gunnarsson, musing on the amount of shots the Leafs have given up this season. Up Next The Leafs return home to host Boston at the ACC on Sunday night. Dan Fouts Womens Jersey .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres are shuffling their roster by promoting forward Phil Varone from their AHL affiliate in Rochester. Philip Rivers Elite Jersey .J. -- A couple of comeback kids helped the New York Giants continue their winning streak.ARLINGTON, Texas -- Yu Darvish let out a good yell and pumped both fists before catcher Chris Gimenez greeted him in front of the mound. The Texas ace wasnt necessarily celebrating his first complete game in the major leagues. His battery mate says he does that all the time. "He just kind of looked at me and goes, Yeah! Thats what I said back to him," Gimenez said. "He likes going Yes! all the time. We kind of goof around with each other about it." This was their best reason yet to have a little fun. Darvish struck out 10 in his six-hitter, Shin-Soo Choo broke a long hitless streak with a three-run double and the Rangers denied Miamis bid for a record interleague winning streak, beating the Marlins 6-0 Wednesday night. Darvish (7-2) struck out the side in the eighth to end a streak of one baserunner in each of the first seven innings for the Marlins. The Japanese right-hander wrapped up his 73rd career start by getting Garrett Jones to swing at a pitch in the dirt. Gimenez had to finish it off with a throw to first. The closest Darvish had come to a complete game were the two times he lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning. The first was a perfect game bid against Houston last year. The other was against Boston a month ago, although a scoring change a few days later altered that. "I wasnt really conscious of throwing a complete game," Darvish said through an translator. "I thought I was going to be out of the game after the eighth inning, but when (manager Ron Washington) told me that Im going in the ninth inning as well, I decided to go. And I also wanted to face (Giancarlo) Stanton again." Darvish gave up his final single to Stanton leading off the ninth, but Casey McGehee grounded into Miamis third double play before Jones whiffed. "I dont think we really have anybody like that," Miami manager Mike Redmond said when asked what NL pitchers compared to Darvish, who was facing the Marlins for the first time. The Marlins had to settle for tying the New York Yankees (2003-04) and Tampa Bay (2004) for the longest interleague winnning streak at 13 games. Keenan Allen Elite Jersey. It was Miamis first interleague loss since last Aug. 12 at Kansas City. The Rangers (32-34) snapped a four-game losing streak and avoided falling four games under .500 for the first time since 2008. Texas split the two-game set and is now winless in eight straight series at home. Choo was in an 0-for-18 slump when he pulled a line drive past Jones at first with the bases loaded in the third against Jacob Turner (2-4). When Stanton couldnt cut off the ball in right field, Elvis Andrus scored easily from first for a 3-0 lead. Choo had a single in the fifth that again brought home Andrus, who had three hits. "I needed just one hit, one good hard it," Choo said. "I tell myself every pitch, start over, start over, start over." Darvish, who won his fourth straight start for the first time in Texas, blew a 4-0 lead in his last start against Cleveland but still got the win in a 6-4 Texas victory. There were no such threats this time, and Darvish has allowed one earned run in 37 2-3 innings over his past five interleague starts. Marcell Ozuna helped Darvish by getting thrown out at second base by left fielder Michael Choice after a leadoff single in the seventh. Justin Bour followed with a walk, but Darvish started a double play on J.T. Realmuto to end the inning. Jones had one of the singles on a 59 mph curveball before Darvish struck out Ozuna looking on a knee-buckling slider. Darvish, who threw 116 pitches, got Stanton swinging on another slider in the sixth. Turner finished the fourth inning after getting hit on the right side by a line drive from Rougned Odour, but the right-hander didnt come out for the fifth. He gave up six hits and five earned runs. NOTES: This was the first meeting between the Marlins and Rangers since July 2011. They play two more in Miami on Aug. 19-20. ... The Rangers agreed to terms with top draft pick Luis Ortiz, a high school pitcher from California. The deal for the right-hander includes a $1.75 million signing bonus. He will report to the Arizona League after graduating from high school Saturday. cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '
