TORONTO - For any goalie, the repetitions of positioning, moving from side to side, and making stops - hundreds every day in practice - can become mind-numbing.
But the purpose of the reps is to ingrain the movements into a goalie's muscle memory so that he isn't thinking when he slides across a crease, steels himself to make a save, and positions himself correctly for a rebound.
Last night in the third period, all that work paid off for Alex Auld, who made 25 saves in his first start in a Boston sweater, a 2-1 victory over Toronto before 19,441 at
"You don't really think about it," said Auld of the situation.
The sequence Auld referred to started when Toronto, down, 2-1, halfway through the third period, had two sparkling scoring chances. Forward Alex Steen, controlling the puck behind the Boston net, spotted linemate Matt Stajan unmarked in the slot. Steen curled out from behind the cage and connected with a tape-to-tape pass.
Auld, a butterfly goalie, tracked the puck and pushed off his left skate, putting himself in place to punch aside Stajan's first attempt with his blocker. The rebound angled back to Stajan, but Auld never broke motion, recovering to drop into a textbook butterfly to smother the forward's second shot with his chest.
"I told Alex before the game that the way we play, we'll give him a lot of help," said coach Claude Julien. "I told him that the way we play, he just has to concentrate on making that first save and we'll take care of the rest. He did that. He was positionally sound tonight."
Auld, a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, is no stranger to the Toronto rink. On Oct. 9, 2006, Auld faced a Toronto firestorm while serving as Ed Belfour's No. 2 man in Florida. That night, Auld made one of his 27 appearances of the season, stopping 47 of 48 shots in the Panthers' 2-1 shootout loss.
Auld's performance caught the attention of his future coach, who gave the 26-year-old the start last night over rookie Tuukka Rask.
Auld, a second-round pick of Florida in 1999, was projected to become a No. 1 goalie. But Auld's NHL career hasn't progressed as planned. Florida traded Auld's rights to Vancouver May 31, 2001, then reacquired the 6-foot-5-inch, 221-pound netminder from the Canucks June 23, 2006, in a blockbuster package (forward Todd Bertuzzi and defenseman Bryan Allen were also included in the deal) for franchise netminder Roberto Luongo. Auld signed a one-year, two-way contract ($600,000 NHL salary) with Phoenix Aug. 13, and will be an unrestricted free agent after this season.
This year, Auld was caught in Phoenix's in-the-crease traffic jam - Mikael Tellqvist and David Aebischer were also given looks before the Coyotes stabilized the position by claiming Ilya Bryzgalov off waivers Nov. 17 - and was promised by general manager Don Maloney that he'd be traded once Phoenix found the right partner.
Auld was assigned to San Antonio, Phoenix's AHL affiliate, Nov. 20. Auld appeared in nine games with the Coyotes this season (3-6-0, 3.54 goals-against average, .880 save percentage) before his assignment. Then on Thursday, after Tim Thomas went down with a groin pull the previous night, Auld was dealt to Boston for Providence forward Nate DiCasmirro and a 2009 fifth-round pick.
Auld's life may be upside down. His wife, Melanie, who is 8 1/2-months pregnant, is slated to travel to Boston today from San Antonio. His father, Bob, attended last night's game after flying from San Antonio. But Auld looked composed, shaking off a bad first-period goal by Jason Blake that gave Toronto a 1-0 lead.
While Auld held the fort, the Bruins jumped on counterpart Vesa Toskala when Chuck Kobasew scored his team-leading 12th goal, firing a power-play wrister through the netminder at 12:25 of the first period. In the second period, Dennis Wideman scored the winning goal, whistling a slapper past Toskala at 9:25 after taking a feed from Brandon Bochenski.
Then in the third period, with help from his defense - Zdeno Chara took a slap shot by defenseman Tomas Kaberle square in the spoked B - Auld kept the surging Leafs from scoring the equalizer.
"Our system in our end makes it that much easier," said Auld. "Guys really collapse in front of the net and get the rebounds. That makes my job a little bit easier. That's one of the staples of this team. That's one of the first things Claude Julien told me when I came here - it was going to be a system conducive to goaltenders. That's great. Even when we get hemmed in, we stay poised. That's great."
After making postgame stops with CBC and NESN interviewers, Auld was the last Bruin into the dressing room. A roar could be heard inside, where his new teammates made him know how welcome he is.
