After dropping down 2-0 to the Colorado Avalanche in the first period last night, it appeared as though the Leafs would not be able to sweep their 4-game road trip, dropping their final game before returning home. That was, of course, before Tyler Bertuzzi celebrated his birthday with a hat trick in Denver, capping off a 4-3 Leafs comeback win.
The Leafs have now beaten both of the last two Stanley Cup winners in successive contests, which doesn't have much bearing in the regular season per se, but it does show that, when push comes to shove, the Leafs can hang with the best of them - even if they are forced to play from behind in a game. The team's win streak has now been extended to 7 games.
With the game in Colorado, the Avs' play-by-play announcer was plenty excited to call the game when the home team was winning 2-0, but by the end of the game, with the score tied 3-3 with under 3 minutes to go, when Bertuzzi scored his 3rd of the night, the Avs' colour commentator had the life sucked right out of him when he had to announce the goal.
It's always the best when a team's play-by-play announcers are real homers, because it leads to some entertaining moments during their play calls. It's for this reason that I'll always be for Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph returning to TV, even though it will likely never happen. For this Avs announcer, his homerism came out in full force in having to announce Bertuzzi's hat trick. The disappointment in his voice was so authentic. You can't script that.
