Domi cherishes his 'goal'
Shot went off Sen, but Leaf calls it biggest of career Buds' tough guy worried about losing his voice

Apr. 17, 2004
Toronto Star

Tie Domi took a stick in the throat almost two months ago and he still doesn't know when his voice is going to return to normal. Luckily, however, he found his scoring touch at just the right time.

All right, it might be a stretch to suggest that Domi's game-winner last night had anything to do with a scoring touch — considering Domi's rebound went in off the skate of backchecking Senator forward Bryan Smolinski.

It was Domi's first goal and point of the series and in light of the fact that he couldn't come up with a more prominent contribution off the top of his head, was the biggest goal of his career.

"It is now," Domi said after the game. "Absolutely. And the biggest win of my career, too, but we have a lot of work ahead of us and the fourth win is always the toughest one to get."

Domi has largely drawn fourth-line duty in this series, but has also seen time on the power play and earned a respectable 12 minutes and 35 seconds of ice time last night. And although the goal was not a pretty one, Domi got it because of his willingness to drive to the net, an element that often goes missing in Leaf forwards.

"I knew that Robert (linemate Reichel) was going to make that pass so I just kept my feet moving," Domi said. "And he put it right on the tape."

Truth be told, this past season has not exactly been a great one for Domi, who has played almost all this season as a left winger after playing most of his career on the right side. After coming off a career-high 15 goals in 2002-03, Domi had just seven this season and spent more time fighting than he has in the past couple of years, and was suspended two games for too many instigator penalties.

And on Feb. 27 in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Domi took an accidental high stick to the throat from Lightning forward Cory Stillman that damaged his vocal chords so badly that he couldn't talk for a week. Almost two months later, Domi still sounds like he has a very bad case of laryngitis.

"I'm going to get it checked this summer, but I don't want to be like Dave Manson," Domi said of his former teammate who can barely speak above a whisper after being punched in the throat earlier in his career by Sergio Momesso. "When it happened, I couldn't talk for a week, but they said it would get better. It comes and it goes, but when I yell or late at night, it gets really bad. It's pretty frustrating. I'm praying to God that I do get it back or that they can do something about it."

Domi wasn't the only Maple Leaf to step up his game in the absence of captain Mats Sundin. Veteran defenceman Ken Klee might have saved the series with a defensive play on the ever-dangerous Marian Hossa midway through the second period.

Hossa was busting in alone and Klee caught up with him and got his stick on Hossa's stick just as he was about to make a move. Instead of getting a shot off, the puck harmlessly dribbled off Hossa's stick.

"I was just trying to force him to as bad an angle as I could," Klee said. "He had quite a lead on me, so I was just trying to put as much heat on him as I could and I know that with this wonderful Air Canada Centre ice there was a good chance the puck was going to start bouncing and I was happy it just started jumping on him."