The Ottawa Senators are heading back to the nation’s capital empty-handed, and it figures that Tie Domi’s son would eventually emerge as a factor in the Battle of Ontario.
3:09 into overtime, Max Domi’s shot from the high slot went off the goalpost and in, beating Linus Ullmark and the Senators, 3-2. With the victory, Toronto takes a strong 2-0 series lead.
Ullmark stopped 18 of 21 Toronto shots on the night, while Anthony Stolarz made 26 of 28 saves. Ottawa got goals from Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette. John Tavares had a goal and an assist for the Leafs, while Morgan Rielly had the other goal.
It was a much more disciplined effort from the Senators, who gave the Leafs only one power play on the night.
In regulation, the two clubs each swapped goals that weren’t exactly the highlight reel variety.
For the second straight game, the Leafs grabbed a 2-0 first-period lead. The first goal came off a nice pass off the half-boards from William Nylander. Nylander out-hustled Thomas Chabot to find a passing lane, then hit Morgan Rielly at the far post. Drake Batherson was able to take Rielly’s stick away, but Rielly redirected the puck into the net with his skate to make it 1-0.
Tavares made it 2-0 on the power play. His shot was stopped by Ullmark, but the puck then banked in off Nick Jensen and into the net.
The Sens did seem to get their feet under them after that and played an excellent second period, where they outshot the Leafs 13-3 and led in shot attempts 33-7. Tkachuk got the only goal of the second period when his centering pass deflected in off of Brandon Carlo’s skate to cut Toronto’s lead in half.
While the Senators launched a shooting gallery at Stolarz in the second period, their first shot of the third period didn’t come until just over 5 minutes left in regulation. It was a goal by Adam Gaudette, who tipped home a shot from the point over the right shoulder of Stolarz. The Leafs bench feverishly reviewed their replay monitors in hopes of challenging the goal for a missed offside. No luck.
That took the game to overtime, where it was decided just over 3 minutes in. On one ill-fated shift, the Senators’ poise went right out the window.
Toronto’s Simon Benoit grabbed the puck inside his own blue line and sprinted up the right wing on what turned out to be a 2-on-4 rush as the rest of the Leafs made a line change. Max Domi came along for the ride and accepted a drop pass from Benoit. Domi went right through Dylan Cozens and then right through Batherson, who both overcommitted and failed to take the body.
Then, with Chabot backing up too far to cover anyone, he and Benoit appeared to serve as the perfect screen. Domi then put one in off the post to win it.
Despite being down 0-2 now in the series, Senators head coach Travis Green was deadly calm in his post game availability, which set a fine example for his troops. He says there is no reason to panic.
“I think first of all, a lot of our guys haven’t played a lot of playoff hockey,” Green said. “They haven’t lost a playoff game in that way either. We talked about that quickly. I talked about earlier today that we had to play better. I really like the way we played tonight. A big step as a group. Looking forward to the next game.
“We came on the road, played two road games. Like someone said earlier, we probably deserved a better fate tonight. But that’s part of playoff hockey, and we’ve said it all year: we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves. We don’t look behind. We worry about the next game, and if you do that, good things happen.”
The Senators now face a near must-win situation on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre as the series shifts to Ottawa for Games 3 and 4.
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