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Dion Phaneuf got up off the ice in his team’s corner of the rink late in Saturday’s second period and you could almost hear his brain starting to cramp.

The Toronto Maple Leafs captain had been belted to the ice by hard-forechecking Canadiens forward Dale Weise, and now Phaneuf was up and off in pursuit of the steamroller than had just run him over.

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A cross-check was followed by a mugging, an unsuccessful attempt to engage Weise. All it did was send Phaneuf to the penalty box alone with 1:12 left, the Leafs trailing 4-2, but storming the Canadiens in a period that would see them outshoot their host 23-11 and twice pull within a single goal of tying the game.

Fifty-eight seconds later, Brendan Gallagher put the Habs up 5-2 on the power play and that’s all she wrote for the visitor, who scored one in the third period, but couldn’t escape the hole into which Phaneuf had shovelled them.

The 5-3 victory was the Canadiens’ ninth straight this season, sending them out west Sunday for three games in four nights beginning Tuesday.