Max Domi scored the overtime winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-2 to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series on Tuesday.
For a while, it looked like the Leafs were going to steamroll the Senators after scoring twice on their first four shots on goal for the second consecutive game. However, the Senators hung on and dominated the second period, which led to their first goal of the game from Brady Tkachuk.
The third period saw the Leafs play tighter defensively as they tried to hand on to the one-goal lead. But Senators forward Adam Gaudette deflected a shot past Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz to tie the game and force overtime.
It didn’t take long before Max Domi scored the winner at 3:09. Toronto is 10-0 all-time in the best-of-seven series, where they won the first two games at home.
After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube broke down the flow of the game.
“Yeah, it was great to see that goal by Max. Obviously a great play. (Simon) Benoit made a great play on it,” Berube said. “But first period was really good. I liked our start a lot, came out playing on our toes, and got through our forecheck. We were aggressive. We got a good lead, our power play came through again. Second period I thought that they were the better team. We didn’t make plays, we kind of looked like we were just protecting the lead a little bit and didn’t make enough plays. Didn’t advance and get to the offensive zone enough. Took a couple of penalties. And third period was fine. We were in good shape. The goal was the first shot we gave up in the third period. We were playing the right way and doing the right thing. It was a mistake and mistakes happen. We stayed with it and ended up getting the win.”
In addition, Berube addressed:
* The change in Morgan Rielly’s game (he scored Toronto’s first goal of the game).
* Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz’ performance (26-save performance)
* Why the Leafs elected not to challenge the Gaudette goal after mulling it over.
* The impact of Pontus Holmberg and his ability to draw penalties (leading to John Tavares’ power-play goal that made it 2-0 Toronto)
Q: What have you seen different from Morgan Rielly that has allowed him to perform in the way he has? (one goal t
I don’t think it’s different in the playoffs than the last 20 games, I would say, or so, where he is up in the play more like I talked about. Playing with (Brandon) Carlo, I think he feels very comfortable with his partner. They got a good chemistry together and I think that he’s freed up a little bit to do his thing offensively.
Q: Max looks like he’s been putting in extra work. Good to see a goal like that pay off for him?
Yeah, he still works hard. I mean, he’s always trying to improve and get better and work with people, skill guys, and practice and stuff like that. And I feel very good. I feel very happy for him to get a goal. It’s a big goal, obviously, and it’s a great feeling to score one of those. I’ve got a couple. *laughs* I’m very happy for him. He’s a hard worker. I thought he had a good game tonight overall. You know, he was skating. I always say when Max skates and attacks, he’s on his game.
Q: You’ve know Anthony his whole career. What are the lessons for a goalie who has waited this long to get his shot and see it pay off?
Yeah, I had him at the start of his career in Philly. He’s just getting going in pro. You go through your career, how he went through it. Kind of always was like the backup, but, you know, not a starter. And still a valuable position. Ge’s coming off a very good season last year and won him a Stanley Cup and he came in this year, wanting to be a starter. And I know it was a shared net for the most of the year. I think, you know, a lot of the reason for that was we had two guys that have not played a significant amount of games throughout the season. So I like the combination of both of them, but, you know, he’s been excellent all year. I mean he got injured there, coming back from the injury, he took him a bit to establish himself again. But he’s doing the job for us now.
Q: What did you make of Anthony sticking up for himself and take a roughing penalty?
I mean, I think it gets annoying after a while, right? And I’ve seen that with goalies before. I really don’t have a problem with it.
Q: What was the conversation on the bench like of Ottawa’s second goal?
Oh the tying goal? Well Stutzle’s coming in, you know, he’s not over the blue (line) the other way yet. And the puck just fired in and it looks like it hit him. We couldn’t really identify that immediately, so call timeout so our video guys can take a little bit more time to look at it, but we made the decision that it did not hit him.
Q: Pontus draws a penalty. Can you talk about the little things he’s done in this series?
He draws a lot of penalties. He’s very good at that. One of the best. I think, like I said, I talked about Pontus and to me his game has gone to another level in the last 20 or so where he’s way more aggressive. He has the ability to hang on to pucks and keep pucks and win battles and things like that. But for me, the skating part of it has gotten to another level where he’s not waiting to be safe or, you know, he’s just going now. Skating. I thought he had a real good game tonight. He was strong on things in the corner, helping out, battling, doing a lot of good things. He was at the net most of the night too for that line, which is important.
Q: You’ve been through a lot as a coach. How frustrating does it get when you go through stretches where it looks like your team stops playing?
Yeah, and I thought in a second, like I said, we stopped skating and watched a little bit and stopped making plays. It is frustrating, but at the same time as a coach, you’ve got to, you know, we’re asking our players to be composed. I’ve got to be composed too. Talk to them about things, try to motivate them a little bit on the bench and get them going again, get them skating again. It was a funny period because it was a lot of different matchups going on and whistles and penalties. We had a couple penalties, so, you know, there’s certain guys that don’t hit the ice and they get out of rhythm a little bit. So we definitely got to play better in the second period.
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