Etobians Subban and Smith clash during NHL playoffs at the Bell Centre in Montreal

Subban, the Montreal Canadiens high scoring defender who grew up in Rexdale, lined up Smith, the Boston Bruins’ high scoring rookie who grew up in Mimico, dishing out a body slam that earned him a roughing penalty.

Just to rub in his takeout of his fellow Etobian, Subban, at the end of his penalty, hopped out of the box and scored on a breakaway. He ended up with two points (a goal and an assist) in the 4-2 win which gave the Habs a 2-1 series lead.

Smith, meanwhile, scored the winning goal in the Bruins’ furious 5-3 comeback win Saturday, May 3 (Subban added two assists in the losing cause).

In the series opener on Thursday, May 1 – won 4-3 in double overtime by the Canadiens – Subban’s second goal of the game was the overtime winner (Smith got the Bruins on board when they were down 2-0).

Game 4 is slated for tonight (Thursday, May 8) in Montreal.

Subban, who turns 25 on May 13, is last year’s James Norris Memorial Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenceman – an honour he wasn’t nominated for this season. But he still had a pretty good regular season, and is enjoying an outstanding post season with with 11 points (8 goals, three assists) in seven games (that’s fourth overall and tops among defencemen).

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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Smith, who turned 23 on April 1, completed his first full NHL regular season and has kicked off his first NHL post season with four points (3 goals, 1 assist) in eight games.

The other Toronto connection in this series is Bruins defenceman Dougie Hamilton, who will turn 21 June 17. He was born and raised in Toronto before moving with his family in his early teens to St. Catharines. Both he and his older (by one year) brother Freddie, 22, played their junior hockey for the Niagara Ice Dogs. Drafted by the San Jose Sharks, Freddie has played the bulk of his games over the last two seasons for their farm team, the Worcester Sharks, but did see his first NHL action this regular season, held pointless in 11 games.

The other second-round series with a Toronto showdown also resumes tonight in Los Angeles featuring Tyler Toffoli, 22, of the host Los Angeles Kings and Devante Smith-Pelly, 21, of the Anaheim Duicks – both from Scarborough. In fact both are former students at Scarborough’s Birchmount Park Collegiate.

The Kings are up 2-0 with Toffoli contributing an assist in the 3-1 win on Monday in Game 2.

Going into tonight’s game, Toffoli has six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in nine games; Smith-Pelly has two goals in seven games.