Domi scores in OT, Maple Leafs top Senators 3-2 to grab lead in Battle of Ontario

Joshua Clipperton · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 22, 2025 11:05 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

Max Domi scored astatine 3:09 of overtime arsenic the Toronto Maple Leafs survived a blown 2-0 pb to decision the Ottawa Senators 3-2 and spell up 2-0 successful their first-round playoff bid Tuesday.

The winger moved into the violative portion successful the other play and ripped his archetypal of the post-season upstairs past Linus Ullmark.

John Tavares, with a extremity and an assist, and Morgan Rielly provided the remainder 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 present shifts to the nation's superior for Games 3 and 4 opening Thursday astatine the Canadian Tire Centre.

The Leafs, who took Sunday's opener 6-2, pb a post-season bid 2-0 for the archetypal clip since 2002.

In the playoffs for the archetypal clip successful 8 years pursuing a agelong rebuild, the Senators limp location looking for answers.

Toronto, which bushed Ottawa 4 times successful 5 post-season matchups successful the aboriginal 2000s, is 10-0 all-time successful bid wherever the nine wins the archetypal 2 games astatine home, and has a two-game playoff borderline for conscionable the 2nd clip successful 10 tries crossed the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner era.

The Leafs went up 1-0 astatine 3:43 of Tuesday's archetypal play moments aft Marner deed the station with Ullmark astatine his mercy erstwhile William Nylander's centring walk deed a hard-charging Rielly successful beforehand for his 2nd extremity of the series.

Ottawa had a mates bully looks connected its archetypal powerfulness play, but Stolarz was determination to marque 4 stops, including point-blank chances for Dylan Cozens and Tkachuk.

After scoring 3 quick-strike goals connected the antheral vantage successful Game 1 against an inexperienced and undisciplined opponent, Toronto capitalized 18 seconds into its archetypal accidental erstwhile Tavares sent a puck into the crease that deflected successful disconnected Ottawa defenceman Nick Jensen connected the location side's 4th changeable astatine 8:20.

Stolarz decked Senators guardant Ridly Greig, who slid into the netminder precocious successful Game 1, astatine the extremity of an Ottawa powerfulness play successful the 2nd connected a series that resulted successful coincidental insignificant penalties.

The visitors steadied themselves arsenic the play wore connected and chopped the shortage successful fractional astatine 15:41 connected different antheral vantage erstwhile Tkachuk — again the people of "Brady Sucks" chants wrong a rocking Scotiabank Arena — sent a walk successful beforehand that deed Leafs blueliner Brandon Carlo's skate and dribbled past an outstretched Stolarz.

Tavares had a accidental to marque it 3-1 aboriginal successful the third, but Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson did capable connected the backcheck to disrupt his effort.

Ottawa, which is 0-9 all-time erstwhile dropping the archetypal 2 games of a series, got its equalizer with 5:13 near successful regularisation connected a Gaudette deflection aft Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson turned the puck implicit to acceptable the signifier for the OT  drama.

Captains America

The bid marks the archetypal clip successful NHL past 2 Canadian teams with U.S.-born captains — Ottawa's Tkachuk and Toronto's Matthews — person met successful the playoffs.

Leafs caput manager Craig Berube, who won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues successful 2019 and has been handed the reins of an enactment looking to extremity decades of playoff misery, was asked pre-game astir his archetypal thoughts connected the Battle of Ontario.

"There's immoderate hatred there, for sure," the erstwhile NHL pugnacious feline from Calahoo, Alta, said with a grin. "It's beauteous good. I bask it."