Senators down Leafs in Toronto

The Senators defeated the Maple Leafs 4-2 on Saturday night to complete the season sweep of the Battle of Ontario.

It was a hard fought game between two rivals, but in the end Ottawa was able to capitalize on their chances and get another important two points in this season’s playoff race.

The first period ended without either squad being able to break the deadlock, but the Senators doubled the Leafs in shots 10-5 and seemed to have Toronto on their heels with an aggressive forecheck

The second period opened with a renewed intensity and it didn’t take long for the pressure to result in the first goal of the game. With almost seven minutes played in the second period William Nylander took the puck out of the corner and slid the puck past Linus Ullmark.

The Senators answered back less than two minutes later when Jake Sanderson ripped home a high shot following a hard battle on the boards by Tim Stützle. With Brady Tkachuk’s assist on the play he extended his point streak to 8 games.

The scoring pace continued when the Leafs capitalized off a bad bounce and an Ullmark mishandling of the puck to take the lead again less than 60 seconds later.

Again it took less than a minute for the Senators to respond as they built up pressure on the Leafs in their zone and were able to finally knot the game at two-goals each when Dylan Perron scored on great pass from Drake Batherson.

Still in the second period, the first penalty of the game was called when Matthew Highmore was interfered with by Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The Senators didn’t waste the first power play opportunity of the game with Claude Giroux scoring his 14^th goal of the season with just under six minutes to play in the second frame.

The third period started with three consecutive shots from the Maple Leafs, but Ullmark turned them all aside. For the majority of the frame the Senators were able to play strong defence and keep he scoring chances to a minimum.

With just 5:09 left in the third period the Leafs found themselves on the power play after a delay of game was called on Artem Zub. The Senators created the best scoring chance in the next two minutes despite being on the penalty kill when Claude Giroux created a breakaway chance, but was turned aside by Stolarz.

With the Toronto net empty and the extra attacker on the ice, Ridly Greig had two chances at the empty net, but couldn’t convert. Finally, he was able to find the back of the empty net, but it was called back for offside.

The Senators played robust defense into the dying seconds when Michael Amadio made a great defensive play on William Nylander that caused a Leaf turnover. Finally, as the Ottawa players made their way up the ice they were able to score on the empty net and put the game out of reach. Greig was the primary assist on the play but it was Amadio who scored his fourth goal in eight games.

With the Senators win the move just four points back of the Lightning and Leafs in the Eastern Division. The Montreal Canadiens are up next for the Senators when they travel to Montreal on Tuesday before heading back to Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday for a battle against Colorado.

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