Leafs lose this Battle of Ontario in OT
Outrageous comeback produces dramatic overtime triumph
The Ottawa Senators were the comeback kids on Monday night.
In a stunning rally, the Senators defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime.
Evgenii Dadonov's second goal of the game, on a breakaway, ended up as the game-winner.
According to NHL public relations, it was the first time in modern franchise history that the Senators wiped out a deficit of at least four goals to win.
For the first two periods, there were plenty of lessons and growing pains for the young and struggling Senators.
Then came the third period and overtime, where it was the Senators who sent the Maple Leafs the loud message about getting ahead of themselves too early.
Down by four goals late in the second period, the Senators roared all the way back, tying the game 5-5 on Dadonov's goal with only 2:01 remaining in regulation and with goaltender Marcus Hogberg on the bench in favour of an extra skater.
Drake Batherson, Nick Paul, Artem Zub and Connor Brown also scored for the Senators.
For the Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews scored twice, padding his NHL goal-scoring lead, while 41-year-old Joe Thornton, Pierre Engvall and Travis Boyd had also scored against Hogberg.
The class of the North Division so far, the Maple Leafs appeared free and clear while owning a 5-1 lead in the second period.
The Senators had plenty to say about that.
Momentum is a crazy animal. Paul started the Senators' rally by scoring short-handed with nine seconds left in the second.
In the opening minute of the third, Zub stepped out of the penalty box and scored on a breakaway against Maple Leafs goaltender Fredrik Anderson — his first NHL goal — to make it 5-3.
When Brown made it 5-4 at the 5:52 mark of the third, the Maple Leafs knew they were suddenly in a fight and the Senators had turned the tide, setting up the entertaining finish.
The Maple Leafs jumped on the Senators off the opening faceoff.
The game seemed all but over when Matthews scored his second of the night and 13th of the season — on a 5-on-3 advantage late in the second period to give the Maple Leafs their 5-1 lead.
Up to that point, the Maple Leafs had regularly beaten the Senators to loose pucks and taken advantage of countless odd-man breaks, seemingly toying with the Senators.
It wasn't close to the start the Senators and Hogberg — making his second consecutive start in place of injured No. 1 goaltender Matt Murray — were hoping for following Saturday's 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets, which had ended a string of 12 losses in 13 games.
The Senators came into a game with some momentum for a change.
“It was a big time identity builder, that game,” Brown said before the puck dropped against the Maple Leafs.
“We're starting to figure out how we're going to win and it's by playing the right way and as we get older, these young kids get older and start scoring and we'll be able to fill the net a little more. It starts with defence, out.”
Come Monday, though, there wasn't much defence early on as the Senators did little to protect Hogberg.
Matthews, who entered the game with 14 goals and 10 assists in 17 career games against the Senators, finished off a pretty passing play from Mitch Marner and Thornton — making his return from a rib injury — to open the scoring.
Boyd followed up to make it 2-0, capitalizing on the type of 2-on-1 break the Senators can't afford to give up.
Batherson replied for the Senators before the first period was out, but the Maple Leafs piled on to that lead with goals from Engvall, Thornton and the second one from Matthews.
But it wasn't over.
Not even close.
For all the struggles the Senators have had in the opening quarter of the season, they have battled to the end most nights.
They were finally rewarded for their determination against a Maple Leafs squad that fell asleep in the face of the crazy Senators' comeback.