Max Domi scored at 3:09 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs survived a blown 2-0 lead to defeat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 and go up 2-0 in their first-round playoff series Tuesday.
The winger moved into the offensive zone in the extra period and ripped his first of the post-season upstairs past Linus Ullmark.
John Tavares, with a goal and an assist, and Morgan Rielly provided the rest of the offence for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves.
Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette replied for Ottawa. Ullmark stopped 18 shots.
The best-of-seven Battle of Ontario now shifts to the nation’s capital for Games 3 and 4 beginning Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Leafs, who took Sunday’s opener 6-2, lead a post-season series 2-0 for the first time since 2002.
In the playoffs for the first time in eight years following a long rebuild, the Senators limp home looking for answers.
Toronto, which beat Ottawa four times in five post-season matchups in the early 2000s, is 10-0 all-time in series where the club wins the first two games at home, and has a two-game playoff edge for just the second time in 10 tries across the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner era.
The Leafs went up 1-0 at 3:43 of Tuesday’s first period moments after Marner hit the post with Ullmark at his mercy when William Nylander’s centring pass hit a hard-charging Rielly in front for his second goal of the series.
Ottawa had a couple good looks on its first power play, but Stolarz was there to make four stops, including point-blank chances for Dylan Cozens and Tkachuk.
After scoring three quick-strike goals on the man advantage in Game 1 against an inexperienced and undisciplined opponent, Toronto capitalized 18 seconds into its first opportunity when Tavares sent a puck into the crease that deflected in off Ottawa defenceman Nick Jensen on the home side’s fourth shot at 8:20.
Stolarz decked Senators forward Ridly Greig, who slid into the netminder late in Game 1, at the end of an Ottawa power play in the second on a sequence that resulted in coincidental minor penalties.
The visitors steadied themselves as the period wore on and cut the deficit in half at 15:41 on another man advantage when Tkachuk — again the target of “Brady Sucks” chants inside a rocking Scotiabank Arena — sent a pass in front that hit Leafs blueliner Brandon Carlo’s skate and dribbled past an outstretched Stolarz.
Tavares had a chance to make it 3-1 early in the third, but Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson did enough on the backcheck to disrupt his effort.
Ottawa, which is 0-9 all-time when dropping the first two games of a series, got its equalizer with 5:13 left in regulation on a Gaudette deflection after Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson turned the puck over to set the stage for the OT drama.
Captains America
The series marks the first time in NHL history two Canadian teams with U.S.-born captains — Ottawa’s Tkachuk and Toronto’s Matthews — have met in the playoffs.
Leafs head coach Craig Berube, who won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and has been handed the reins of an organization looking to end decades of playoff misery, was asked pre-game about his initial thoughts on the Battle of Ontario.
“There’s some hatred there, for sure,” the former NHL tough guy from Calahoo, Alta, said with a grin. “It’s pretty good. I enjoy it.”
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