Leafs Get A Thumping!

Lee Stempniak had two goals and an assist and the St. Louis Blues chased Curtis Joseph with six goals on their first 12 shots in a 7-3 pre-season victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

"I know what I've got to do, I know where I've got to go," the 41-year-old Joseph said. "Just a bruised ego, that's all. I can get over that."

Andy McDonald of the Blues had a goal and two assists in the first period, giving him 11 points in four pre-season games. Brad Boyes scored his fourth goal of the pre-season and added an assist, and Chris Mason made 21 saves in a game plagued by skirmishes in the final period.

The McDonald-Stempniak-Boyes line has totalled 29 points in four pre-season games for St. Louis, which concludes exhibition play on Saturday at Atlanta. The Blues (3-2-1) open the regular season Oct. 10 at home against the Nashville Predators.

"I don't know if we're amazed," Boyes said. "We've got good chemistry."

The 41-year-old Joseph returned to the Maple Leafs with a one-year free agent contract this summer and made his first start against the Blues. Anton Stralman scored his third goal of the pre-season and added an assist for the Maple Leafs (2-3-1), who beat the Blues 4-3 in overtime in Toronto on Monday night.

"Normally, you wouldn't in an exhibition game take the goalie out," Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. "But a lot of shots were going in and I didn't want Cujo to have to suffer through a night if he didn't have it, and he didn't.

"He'll recover, he's been through this stuff before."

Yan Stastny got his first goal of the pre-season just 11 seconds into the game. Goals by Boyes, Stempniak and rookie T.J. Oshie made it 4-0 before the period was 10 minutes old.

Stempniak's second goal at 1:56 of the second made it 6-1 and that was it for Joseph, Toronto's backup behind Vesa Toskala. Rookie Justin Pogge shut out the Blues until David Perron scored his fifth goal of the pre-season with 30 seconds to go.

The lopsided loss ended a string of four straight one-goal games for Toronto.