Football
Associated Press 19y

O'Neill scores winner for Maple Leafs, dedicates goal to his late brother

Jeff O'Neill always wanted to play for the hometown Toronto Maple Leafs. And why not? It would give his family lots of chances to see him perform.

But just nine days before O'Neill got his wish, his older brother, Donny, was killed in a car accident while Jeff was in Toronto.

He was very much on O'Neill's mind Tuesday night when he netted his first goal for the Maple Leafs, the winner in Toronto's 4-2 home victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The goal would've been special no matter what to O'Neill, who dedicated it to his late brother. The fact that it gave Toronto its first win of the young season made it all the more important.

"The last three months seemed liked three years," O'Neill said. "I knew that when I got my first one it'd be for him.

"It's good to get it out of the way. It is something that's really tough to deal with, but being in this locker room and playing hockey makes it a little easier."

In other games, it was: Ottawa 4, Montreal 2; St. Louis 4, Chicago 1; Dallas 3, Phoenix 2; and Los Angeles 3, Edmonton 1.

O'Neill's one-timer on the power play gave Toronto a 3-2 lead at 7:34 of the third period. Eric Lindros sealed the win nearly six minutes later with his second of the season.

"It's good to get a game-winner whenever, but playing in this arena and ... wearing the white and blue has been a dream of mine since I was a kid.

"It was a reality, and it was a lot of fun."

O'Neill sat out the previous two games after bruising a shoulder in the opener. He came back in time to score in front of another brother, Ryan, who was in attendance Tuesday night.

Backup Mikael Tellqvist started in goal for Toronto in the second of back-to-back contests. He made 31 saves one night after the Maple Leafs lost in a shootout at Ottawa.

Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers (1-2), who went 0-for-4 on the power play to drop to 1-for-19 on the season.

Philadelphia's top line of Peter Forsberg, Gagne and Knuble has scored six of the club's 10 goals.

"We're not going to survive with one line scoring goals," captain Keith Primeau said. "We need to get offense from other places."

At St. Louis, Jay McClement scored his first NHL goal on a penalty shot and added an assist to lead the host Blues to their first win.

Patrick Lalime rebounded from a slow start and made 32 saves in his first victory of the season. Lalime was 0-3 with a 6.00 goals-against average.

Dean McAmmond, Scott Young and Dallas Drake also scored for St. Louis (1-3). Mike Sillinger had two assists, giving him 400 career points.

Tyler Arnason scored the only goal for Chicago, which began a four-game road trip.

St. Louis was the final Western Conference team to earn a victory this season.

At Montreal, Daniel Alfredsson scored twice and Ray Emery stopped 26 shots in his first start of the season as Ottawa extended its winning streak to four and handed the Canadiens their first loss.

Alfredsson tied it at 2 late in the second period with a short-handed goal. He added his fifth of the season on a power play at 14:35 of the third to put Ottawa up 4-2.

Antoine Vermette gave the Senators their second lead of the game 2:58 into the third period. Chris Phillips had two assists, including one on Zdeno Chara's first of the season, which opened the scoring 2:27 in.

Emery, making his first appearance after Dominik Hasek got the Senators' season off to a 3-0 start, assisted on Alfredsson's short-handed effort at 18:55 of the second.

Saku Koivu and Steve Begin scored for Montreal (3-1).

At Dallas, Jussi Jokinen scored the first goal of his NHL career to break a tie late in the second period, and Mike Modano added a short-handed tally midway through the third period, lifting the Stars at home.

Dallas peppered Phoenix's rookie goaltender David LeNeveu with 11 shots in the first period, but he allowed only one goal by Antti Miettinen. The Coyotes tied it on Denis Gauthier's goal.

But with 1:01 left in the second, LeNeveu was beaten by Jokinen, and coach Wayne Gretzky's club couldn't recover, falling to 1-3 - including 0-3 on the road.

Phoenix went 0-for-6 on the power play and had just wasted 20 seconds of a 6-on-3 skating advantage when Paul Mara beat Marty Turco with 12.3 seconds left.

At Los Angeles, Dustin Brown and Joe Corvo had power-play goals, Eric Belanger also scored and the Kings ended Edmonton's season-opening, three-game winning streak.

Jason LaBarbera made 23 saves for the Kings, who won their third straight home game following an opening-night loss at Dallas. They took a 2-1 lead on Brown's goal during a four-minute power play.

The Oilers, who killed off all seven Anaheim power plays Monday, fell behind 1-0 the third time they were short-handed against the Kings.

Edmonton's Marc-Andre Bergeron scored his first goal of the season.

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