Leafs Shut Down Bruins

The Toronto Maple Leafs have picked up where they left off last season.

Curtis Joseph posted his 23rd career shutout and the Maple Leafs got goals from four players to win their home opener, 4-0 over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

Mats Sundin, Igor Korolev, Mike Johnson and Todd Warriner scored for the Maple Leafs, who improved to 2-0 following their season-opening win over Montreal on Saturday.

"The key was to keep the nucleus," Joseph said. "A lot of teams haven't been able to sign everybody so I feel that by almost getting everybody signed, minus Dimitri Yushkevich, we may have an advantage."

Joseph, who gave up only one goal to the Canadiens, made 21 saves to blank the Bruins.

"It was one of those nights where (the puck) wasn't going to go in," Joseph said. "One goal against in two games that's nice. A lot of the credit goes to the guys in front of me. They're letting me see the puck and clearing out rebounds. It just looks like we have a lot of confidence right now."

The Bruins, who lost their opener to Carolina, fell to 0-2.

The Maple Leafs took a 3-0 lead after one period on goals by Sundin, Korolev and Johnson.

Sundin pushed in his own rebound two minutes into the game, Korolev poked in a rebound at 17:36, and Johnson scored on a slap shot off a pass from A href=http://www.sportsline.com/u/hockey/nhl/players/19273.htm>Yanic Perreault at 18:18.

The Leafs outshot the Bruins 16-3 in the first period, and 34-21 for the game.

"We started out quick again," Joseph said. "The key for us is to get a lead and play with it, and we did that again."

Toronto made it 4-0 in the second period when Warriner deflected in Bryan Berard's shot at 12:18.

"That's six periods of hockey and our forwards don't have a goal," said Boston coach Pat Burns. "We didn't look like a Boston Bruins team."

Toronto won 75 percent of the faceoffs, partly because Boston's Jason Allison couldn't take any draws due to a sore hand.

"We expected a tough game so we were prepared," Warriner said. "They'll be a different team next time around."

Boston goalie John Grahame made 30 saves in his first NHL start.

The Bruins' No. 1 goalie, Byron Dafoe, is unsigned, so Grahame and Robbie Tallas will alternate until Dafoe returns. Tallas was in goal for Boston's season-opening loss against Carolina.

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