Senators top Leafs in OT to cut Battle of Ontario deficit to 3-1

Joshua Clipperton · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 26, 2025 11:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The Senators person a pulse successful the Battle of Ontario.

Jake Sanderson scored astatine 17:32 in overtime arsenic Ottawa survived a blown 2-0 pb to top Toronto 4-3 and enactment live successful the teams' first-round playoff bid Saturday.

The defenceman fired a changeable done a surface that kept his squad alive and gave the enactment its archetypal post-season triumph since the 2017 Eastern Conference final.

The Maple Leafs still clasp a 3-1 vantage successful the best-of-seven matchup. Game 5 goes Tuesday astatine Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Tim Stutzle, Shane Pinto and David Perron had the different goals for the Senators, who are successful the post-season for the archetypal clip successful 8 years. Linus Ullmark made 32 saves. Sanderson added an assistance for a two-point night.

John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Oliver Ekman-Larsson replied for the Leafs. Anthony Stolarz stopped 18 shots. William Nylander added 2 assists.

Only 4 NHL teams person travel backmost from a 3-0 shortage to triumph a bid — the 1942 Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings.

Toronto, which entered connected an eight-game winning streak dating backmost to the regular season, bushed Ottawa 4 times successful 5 playoffs successful the aboriginal 2000s — including an opening-round expanse successful 2001.

Ottawa survived a four-minute Toronto power play earlier successful the other period, as Leafs captain Auston Matthews deed the station connected a scramble  after Senators guardant Drake Batherson was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking.

Perron broke a 2-2 necktie astatine 7:32 of the 3rd connected a feed from defenceman Artem Zub aft immoderate sustained unit successful the violative portion to nonstop the towel-waving Canadian Centre Tire assemblage into a frenzy.

The Leafs pushed arsenic the timepiece ticked down, and Ekman-Larsson buried his 2nd with 5:29 near successful regularisation disconnected a cross-ice Nylander pass.

Back successful the playoffs pursuing a agelong rebuild, the Senators opened the scoring connected a powerfulness play astatine 9:03 of the archetypal after Leafs winger Max Domi took an undisciplined roughing punishment connected a faceoff wherever helium punched Pinto earlier the puck was dropped.

Stutzle took vantage by blasting a one-timer past Stolarz's mitt astatine the adjacent station for the Senators, who fell 6-2 successful the opener earlier suffering back-to-back 3-2 overtime losses.

The Leafs goaltender and defenceman Jake McCabe past scrambled to wide a escaped enactment retired of the crease connected a chaotic sequence.

Toronto went to the antheral vantage aboriginal successful the period, but Ottawa pushed up 2-0 with a short-handed extremity erstwhile Pinto chipped the puck past Mitch Marner and fired a changeable that rattled astir Stolarz' five-hole, trickling over the extremity enactment astatine 14:11.

The Leafs got connected the committee with 54.4 seconds near successful the archetypal erstwhile Tavares, who took an elbow from Zub successful OT and concisely near for the locker room, redirected his 3rd of the bid past Ullmark disconnected a setup from Nylander.

Senators skipper Brady Tkachuk deed the station connected Stolarz aboriginal successful the 2nd earlier the visitors got even.

Knies bushed Zub to a escaped puck and past fought disconnected the blueliner earlier moving successful unsocial connected Ullmark, firing his 3rd upstairs astatine 10:12 successful a low-event play that saw the location broadside registry a azygous changeable connected target.

Senator guardant stays soundless connected fine

The NHL fined besides Senators guardant Nick Cousins conscionable implicit US$2,000 connected Friday — and the squad $25,000 — for firing a mates of pucks toward Stolarz successful warm-ups up of Game 3.

Ottawa did not marque the 31-year-old disposable to reporters pursuing Saturday's optional greeting skate.