Leafs down Sens in Battle of Ontario Rielly scores winner as Toronto prevails 5-4 over visiting Ottawa
TORONTO — The fans left happy after a back-and-forth game Mike Babcock deemed “way too entertaining for the coach.” And his team won.
Trailing 2-1, the Maple Leafs scored three goals in four minutes late in the second period Wednesday to pull ahead of the Ottawa Senators.
Auston Matthews, fresh off news of a contract extension, scored what had looked to be the winning goal at 3-2, while Mitch Marner set up two others to press his case for a lucrative new deal.
But Ottawa pulled even at 4-4 early in the third on goals by Thomas Chabot and Magnus Paajarvi, with his second of the night, in a span of three minutes 19 seconds.
Morgan Rielly scored the winner midway through the third period for a 5-4 victory.
“We were playing well and then we just got careless and we never really seemed to be able to get it back,” lamented Babcock, who liked his team’s start.
“At the same time, when you’re a good team and you win games, sometimes they’re not very pretty but you still won them. So at the end, when we get up (Thursday) in the standings, it’s going to look pretty good.”
Rielly started the rush after a Sens turnover. After racing up the ice, he passed to Zach Hyman, whose backhand pass found Rielly alone in front of the goal for his 14th of the season at 9:12.
It was also Rielly’s career-high 53rd point of the season.
“It’s a blast playing with him. He’s a great guy to go to battle with every day,” said Leafs centre John Tavares.
The Sens piled on the pressure with the goaltender out but could not score.
Andreas Johnsson, Hyman and Tavares also scored for Toronto. Matt Duchene had the other Ottawa goal.
Toronto (33-17-3) won its third straight and fourth of its last five (4-0-1).
The Senators (19-29-5) suffered their fifth straight loss, but did not look like a team last in the standings.
“It’s the NHL,” said Matthews. “So it doesn’t matter who you’re playing on any given night. It doesn’t matter what the standings are.”
Added Tavares: “They pushed back hard. Give them credit.”
Ottawa outshot Toronto 44-30.
“I thought we carried the play for most of the game,” said Ottawa coach Guy Boucher. “Just a few puck management turnovers cost us.”
Boucher thought his team, up 2-1, should have put the game away in the second but could not convert good chances.
“That was the moment. When you play a team like that and you’ve got them on the ropes, that’s the moment where you’ve got to bury them,” said Boucher.
The Leafs came into the game flushed with news of Matthews’ US$58.2-million, five-year contract extension.
“Welcome home Auston,” said one sign in the stands. “Drink$ on you?”
Matthews opened his NHL account against the Sens on Oct. 12, 2016 at Ottawa where he set a league record for goals scored in an NHL debut (four).
Marner, the Leafs’ leading scorer with 65 points, upped his assists total to 45. It was his 14th multi-assist and 20th multi-point game of the season.
The 21-year-old winger, who is eligible to become a restricted free agent July 1, is next on GM Kyle Dubas’ to-do list. Babcock has no doubts it will get done. “Mitch is a lifetime Leaf,” he said after the morning skate.