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From Mats Sundin against Daniel Alfredsson in the early 2000s to Auston Matthews versus Brady Tkachuk a quarter-century later, the captains are once again becoming the story in this version of the Battle of Ontario.
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After Matthews and Tkachuk exchanged third period goals on Thursday — Tkachuk’s to tie it and bring the Canadian Tire Centre back to life — Matthews cleanly won an early overtime draw to Simon Benoit, then got out of the way for the defenceman’s 3-2 game-winner 79 seconds into the extra period.
After two straight extra period wins, the Leafs are holding the broom with a chance to sweep Ottawa on Saturday in a fifth playoff showdown since 2000. Benoit, with one regular season goal this year, also set up Max Domi’s Game 2 winner on a bold rush.
The Leafs followed up a strong finish to the second period, in which they didn’t panic after Ottawa took its first lead of the series, to score 32 seconds after puck drop. Craig Berube started the Matthews trio, saying he wouldn’t fret much about losing the last line change on the road and let his best players roll.
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Mitch Marner tipped a hard rim-around from Morgan Rielly in front to Matthews, deftly lifting his skate to allow the uncovered Matthews to find twine with all Ottawa eyes fixed on Marner. But when the Domi line lost an offensive draw with less than 10 minutes to play, the Sens quickly turned up ice and Tkachuk beat Anthony Stolarz on their first shot of the period.
Ottawa’s 5-on-3 goal came when William Nylander joining Matthew Knies in the box, a trip during the latter’s penalty killing foray. Claude Giroux took the initiative from the slot for first playoff power-play goal in 13 years.
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Stolarz and the Leafs killed the second minor with Dylan Cozens coming close before Toronto drew even on their next opportunity. In a goal similar to Tkachuk’s in Game 2, a Knies backhander hit enemy legs and found a way just over the red line.
Linus Ullmark, who had to be much better than his first two outings and keen to bust out of an 0-5 playoff slump coming in, made a couple of huge saves in the second period, one without a stick.
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Anticipating noise to be top decibel at the Canadian Tire Centre – there were significantly fewer Leafs sweaters than the regular season, as the Sens hoped — Matthews stressed pre-game how vital it was to get through the first 10 minutes relatively unscathed. In their first home playoff game since May 2017, the Sens came out aggressive, but not reckless.
Ridly Greig, who has a lively feud going with Stolarz, stuck to the script at 5-on-5 and on special teams, while Tkachuk, who’d been looking forward to this home start more than any other Senator, fought through some war wounds to keep the heat on.
Toronto killed an early John Tavares penalty on Tkachuk before two great scoring chances, Bobby McMann was unable to corral a Max Pacioretty pass in front and Nylander elected to slap it on a breakaway.
Stolarz, in his first career game at Canadian Tire Centre, made 18 saves, one more than Ullmark.
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