Toronto Maple Leafs Goalie James Reimer Earns First NHL Shutout

Or  "Tim Brent Takes One For the Team"

Technically, Tim Brent took several for the team in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricane Thursday night.

In what was one of the Maple Leafs most dominating performances of the season, goalie James Reimer and 26-year-old center Tim Brent absolutely stole the show.

Brent, who has been held pointless oddly enough since the last time the Leafs and the Hurricanes met on January 24, took it quite literally upon himself to kill off a five-on-three shorthanded situation in the second period that came just over two minutes after the Leafs opened the scoring.

Brent blocked not one, not two but three slap shots from (including one that hit in a place where a lesser man would have been drooling on the ice in the fetal position) inside the blue line during the two-man advantage.

Carolina captain Eric Staal had high praise for Brent following the game. "He was paying the price," Staal said. "I was laying into them as hard as I could. I thought if I could get it by it him, it had a pretty good chance of going in the net.''

Meanwhile, toward the end of the penalty kill James Reimer, who incidentally was responsible for the Leafs being down two men after taking a hooking penalty, made an outstanding save to atone for enthusiastic stick handling.

The Tim Brent Show didn't stop in the second period, though. He would finish the game with four blocked shots, two or three really good scoring chances (on one of which was absolutely robbed by the glove hand of Cam Ward) and add to that he won 73 percent of his draws.

Reimer was solid all night, making several key saves at key moments, which is exactly what the Leafs need in a goalie—someone who can steal the show once in a while.

This game wasn't just a two-man show, however; the team as a whole blocked 28 shots in front of Reimer who had this to say about his first NHL shutout.

"I didn't really think it was going to come this soon," Reimer said. "I wasn't really expecting it, it's nice to get. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't—the team played phenomenal today.''

Clarke MacArthur is now only one goal away form matching his career high of 17 and would probably love to eclipse that mark on Saturday as the Leafs shuffle off to Buffalo.

Francois Beauchemin lead all players with seven blocked shots and now has 124 blocked shots on the year, good enough to put him fifth best in the NHL.

The Leafs also continued their physical style of play as Dion Phanuef, Colby Armstrong and Francois Beauchemin all laid some thunderous hits on Carolina.

Reimer, who now boasts a record of 5-3 with a goals against average of 1.96 and a save percentage of .940, is playing not only like a No. 1 goalie, but like he could be the first genuine star netminder the Leafs have had in quite some time!