UNIONDALE, N.Y.—Three minutes into OT Friday night, Tie Domi turned to Mats Sundin on the bench and said: "Come on Mats, go score a goal. Shoot five-hole." So he did.

In the dressing room later, Sundin thanked Domi for the advice. "I went five-hole because you told me to."

And for his efforts, the captain was subject to endless razzing, as if scoring his 13th career overtime winner — tying a league record set by ex-teammate Steve Thomas — is the stuff of nonsense.

"I'm the one who knocks Mats back down to reality," says Domi. "I love riding him about stuff."

No subject is off limits, from the captain's droopy wardrobe to his stubborn bachelorhood.

"And have you noticed he's losing his hair? We've got a competition going: Who's going balder faster."

They're a strange duo, Mutt 'n' Jeff, or Abbot and Costello, but fast friends. Domi considers Sundin part of the family. Indeed, his son Max wears a No.13 Leaf jersey, not No.28. "Max definitely wants to be like him, not me. Which is a good thing."

And while Sundin absorbs constant tweaking from Domi, the big Swede can give as good as he gets. "Those guys go at it non-stop, every day," says Joe Nieuwendyk, who was struck by the relationship when he arrived in Toronto. "I knew Tie a little bit prior to coming here, but I didn't know Mats. I'd always assumed he was this big, shy guy. But he's not shy at all. They're a riot, the two of them. I look forward to hearing just what they'll say to each other next."

There's a lot of levity around the Maple Leaf dressing room these days. And fraternity. A team that was reportedly fractured by cliques a year ago is now dramatically homogenous, one-for-all and all-for-one. Symbolized outwardly by that huddle-hug on the ice after every win but inwardly mandated in other ways, like the banning of newspapers. Any player caught reading the sports pages is fined. One had the clippings package ripped out of his hands the other day.

This "us" against the world attitude is a common phenomenon in team sports, although a fraud more often than not and the last refuge of a club on the skids. The Leafs aren't skidding, though, they've been red-hot — 14-0-1-1 until last night's loss against the New York Islanders, ending the league's longest consecutive games point streak since 1999-2000.

It might even be said that the Leafs had forgotten how to lose — although that would be looking at the negative, which this crew rejects.

"Winning is contagious, but you never forget," says Ken Klee, who scored his third goal in Friday's 6-5 victory. "You still have a fear of losing. But I'm a positive guy. You think about losing and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Laughter and kibitzing come easily in a winning dressing room. What's not to be happy about, atop the NHL standings? Even a slew of injuries — Robert Reichel went down Friday with a popped shoulder and has been sent home — hasn't knocked the stuffing out of the team's confidence. Quite the opposite.

The streak, while buoying the team inestimably, has not yet reached the point of becoming a psychological burden. "We're a long way from the record," coach Pat Quinn had noted yesterday morning. And he should know, actually setting the benchmark behind the Philly bench (35) in 1979-80.

Exaggerated expectations can do harm. "I don't know where they are mentally," Quinn said. "It's the attention that comes from outside, when other people start to raise it, all the streak talk, where you can start to think, `Hey, we've got to win.' And then your focus starts to escape."

This current giddiness had to end, of course. The streak's demise was inevitable.

Says Quinn: "Reality has a way of punching you in the nose."