The Maple Leafs’ power play came to life, propelling Toronto to a 7-5 victory over the Senators Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Maybe it was a coincidence, or perhaps dismissed assistant coach Marc Savard was, in fact, hindering Toronto’s man advantage. Regardless, the Maple Leafs scored two power-play goals, helping them to a much-needed win against their Atlantic Division rival.
William Nylander scored the first five-on-four goal forty seconds into the game. The winger snuck uncovered to the front of the net. Auston Matthews fed him the puck, and Nylander backhanded it past Linus Ullmark to make it 1-0.
At the 14:42 mark, Matthew Knies tallied Toronto’s second power-play goal. Max Domi walked the boards and found Knies between the circles for a one-timer that beat Ullmark to increase the lead to 2-0.
The Senators, who had created several decent chances throughout the period, finally converted at 17:42. Nick Cousins notched his 6th of the season, scoring off a scramble in front of goaltender Joseph Woll, and closing the margin to 2-1.
Ottawa tied the game 18 seconds into the second period. Ridly Greig got behind the Leafs’ defence. Claude Giroux hit him with a stretch pass, and in an attempt to track him down, Phillipe Myers collided with Woll, allowing a mishandled puck to cross over the goal line to make 2-2.
Toronto responded to the misplay with three straight goals. Bobby McMann scored his 11th of the season at the 3:28 mark, a rebound jam that Ullmark could not locate. Four minutes later, Auston Matthews extended the lead with a carbon copy of McMann’s goal, tapping the puck by Ullmark to make it 4-2. The shell-shocked netminder got yanked after the goal, but before Leevi Merilainen could even settle into the crease, Nicholas Roberston stuffed home a nifty feed from Knies to push the score to 5-2.
The Senators fought back in the third. Drake Batherson converted a two-on-one in the opening minute of the period to make it 5-3. Then at the 5:07 mark, Tim Stutzle scored his 19th of the year to make it 5-4. Fabian Zetterlund won a battle along the boards, nudged the puck to Stutzle, who skated a quick circle and fired the puck past Woll for the goal.
Knies struck back for the Leafs with his second of the game. Morgan Rielly drove deep into the offensive zone and found Knies cutting to the net. The winger slid the puck past Merilainen at 5:43, giving the Leafs a little bit of breathing room at 6-4.
That relief did not last long, however. The Senators, once again, cut into the lead. Jordan Spence rifled a shot that clipped Giroux in front of the net. The puck deflected back onto Spence’s stick, and on his second attempt, he found the back of the net to make it 6-5 at 9:18 of the period.
John Tavares finally put the game to bed, adding an empty netter at 18:44 to make the final 7-5.
Up next: Toronto travels to Detroit tomorrow to take on the Red Wings.
