OT slapshot sparked bitter war with Sens
Playoff game-winner launched Battle of Ontario
The goal haunts me to this day.
Halfway through the first overtime period of a scoreless Game 1 of the 2001 Eastern Conference quarter-finals between the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, Mats Sundin defined the Battle of Ontario.
I was a12-year-old diehard Senators fan, living and dying with the team’s fortunes. The previous two years had seen playoff failure, including a 2000 loss to the Leafs. But this year was supposed to be different. The Senators were favoured, had swept the season series and boasted their deepest-ever crop of forwards.
In a goaltenders’ battle between Patrick Lalime and Curtis Joseph, Sundin walked into the offensive zone and watched two Senators follow linemate Steve Thomas to the net.
Sundin paused near the top of the faceoff circle and faked a slapshot. Then he wired one to Lalime’s glove side. A loud PING off the post and the roar of the Leaf fans at the Corel Centre came next.
It was as though the Leafs had al- ready won the series. Which they did, of course. In a sweep. Sundin had a point in every game.
I remember going to sleep that night — in my room with my Daniel Alfredsson poster, my Alfredsson jersey and a painting (featuring Alfredsson) of the Senators celebrating making the playoffs in1997 — still hearing that PING and feeling a nagging sense of dread. It was the feeling that no matter what the Senators did, the Leafs would beat them. I felt like a Boston Red Sox fan watching the team lose to the Yankees, except the Yankees are actually good.
During my formative years as a hockey fan, the feeling became crushing. It cropped up later that series when Cory Cross scored the Game 3 overtime winner. It returned the following year, with Gary Roberts’ triple-overtime winner in Game 2. And again in 2004, with Joe Nieuwendyk’s two Game 7 goals that chased Lalime from Ottawa for good.
Those are some moments that define the Battle of Ontario, just now regaining its pizzazz after a moribund few years. But Sundin, with that slapshot, started it all.