Domi scores in OT, Maple Leafs top Senators 3-2 to grab 2-0 lead in Battle of Ontario
TORONTO (AP) — 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 night.
The winger moved into the offensive zone in the extra period and ripped his first of the post-season upstairs past Linus Ullmark.
“Unreal,” Leafs centre John Tavares said. “Great for him, great for our team.”
Tavares, with a goal and an assist, and Morgan Rielly provided the rest of the offense for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves.
“Just pure jubilation,” Stolarz said of Domi’s winner that set off wild celebrations inside and outside Scotiabank Arena. “He’s a hell of a teammate in the room, and to see someone like that get rewarded, hopefully it’s the start of something big.”
Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette scored 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.
“We’re looking forward to getting home,” Tkachuk said. “And honestly, there’s not one ounce of panic.”
Toronto, which beat Ottawa four times in five postseason 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.
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 defenseman 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.
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.
First taste
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 pregame about his initial thoughts on the Battle of Ontario.
“There’s some hatred there, for sure,” the former NHL tough guy from Alberta said with a grin. “It’s pretty good. I enjoy it.”
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