The Maple Leafs are off to the second round of the playoffs.
It just took a little longer than they would have liked.
Max Pacioretty scored the winner with 5:39 left in regulation as Toronto beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 to win the teams’ first-round playoff series 4-2 on Thursday.
William Nylander, with two goals and an assist, and Auston Matthews provided the rest of the offence for the Leafs, who led the series 3-0 before their provincial rival won two straight to put pressure on a storied franchise with plenty of past post-season heartbreak. Pacioretty added an assist for a two-point night
Anthony Stolarz made 20 saves to tie a bow on the Battle of Ontario. Toronto, which improved to 2-13 in potential series-clinching games since 2018 and won a series for just the second time in the NHL’s salary cap era, will face the Florida Panthers in the second round.
Brady Tkachuk and David Perron replied for the Senators, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2017 following a long and painful rebuild in the nation’s capital. Linus Ullmark stopped 19 shots. Thomas Chabot made added two assists.
Toronto grabbed a 3-0 series edge with a blowout opener and a pair of 3-2 overtime victories to push their opponent to the brink, but Ottawa stayed alive with a 4-3 extra-time victory in Game 4 and a 4-0 shutout in Game 5 that caused the collective blood pressure of the Leafs’ tortured fan base to rise significantly.
Pacioretty, a heathy scratch to start the series, bagged the winner off a pass from Max Domi that beat Ullmark to the glove side for his first goal of the playoffs. Scott Laughton then hit the post with a chance to deliver the dagger before Nylander iced it into the empty net with 18.3 seconds left on the clock.
Matthews opened Tuesday’s scoring on a power play with 70 seconds left in the first period when he fired a low shot through traffic for his second.
The breakthrough came after Tkachuk was whistled for interference after thumping Leafs defenceman Brandon Carlo to the ice by the benches.
Elevated to the second line alongside Nylander and John Tavares for Game 6, Pacioretty hit Ullmark’s post earlier in the period during a scramble before Ottawa counterpart Tim Stutzle got his signals crossed at the other end on a great opportunity.
Nylander, who turned 29 on Thursday, made it 2-0 just 43 seconds into the second when he ripped his second on Ullmark after Pacioretty forced a turnover from Senators blueliner Nick Jensen.
Ottawa got on the board at 7:28 when Tkachuk — team captain and a physical force all series — tipped his fourth past Stolarz to send the towel-waving crowd into a frenzy inside an incandescent Canadian Tire Centre.
Toronto, which beat Ottawa four times in five playoffs in the early 2000s, came close to restoring its two-goal lead when Tavares poked a loose puck off the post before Ullmark denied Matthew Knies and Carlo off the rush.
Chabot fired a shot that Stutzle tipped of the iron on Stolarz early in the third as the home side came close to an equalizer.
The Senators went to the power play midway through the period and didn’t get anything going, but Perron scored with 7:20 left in regulation on a shot from below the goal line that went in off Stolarz’s back to set up the dramatic finish.
Only four NHL teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series — the 1942 Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings. Ottawa forward Claude Giroux was part of that Philadelphia team 15 years ago that came all the way back against the Boston Bruins.
