Make it six straight victories for the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in Toronto on Saturday night. The Senators got goals from Jake Sanderson, David Perron, Claude Giroux, and Michael Amadio. Linus Ullmark made 20 saves for Ottawa.
With the win, the Sens are now six points above the Eastern Conference playoff line and four points behind the Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning. Ottawa completes its season series with Toronto at 3-0 and now stands 6-1 in the Battle of Ontario over the past two seasons.
After a scoreless first period, things loosened up in the second—maybe a little too much.
William Nylander opened the scoring, taking advantage of some serious puck-watching by the Senators defence. Nylander buried one after driving the net with little opposition.
And that broke the dam.
The lead lasted barely a minute before Sanderson unleashed a lethal wrist shot upstairs that beat Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz.
A minute after that, a miscommunication between Linus Ullmark and Thomas Chabot led to a costly turnover. Ullmark coughed up the puck, and Auston Matthews made no mistake, burying it into a virtually wide-open net.
The Sens kept pressing, though. At 12:16 of the second, David Perron’s against-the-grain wrist shot evened the game once again. Finally, less than two minutes later, Claude Giroux's shot went in off Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev. That not only gave the Sens their first lead of the game, it stood up as the game-winner.
With just over five minutes left in regulation, Artem Zub tried to chip the puck out of his own zone but sent it over the glass, setting up Toronto's first power play of the evening. Giroux had the only scoring chance with a shorthanded breakaway, but he couldn't beat Stolarz five-hole.
The Leafs pulled the goalie with 2:42 to go, and Ridly Greig had a hat trick of failed empty-net chances, all of them high quality. On his first chance, he simply missed the net. Then, with a second chance to put it away, he did. Eventually. But he went offside. Then he missed a third chance on a shot blocked by Mitch Marner.
Leaf fans will surely call that karma for Greig's empty-net slap shot goal in Ottawa last season.
Amadio, who was phenomenal defensively, finally got loose and sealed the win, putting the puck into the vacant Leaf net as gently as any player ever has. Greig drew the assist.
The Senators are off until Tuesday when they play a fired-up group in Montreal. The Canadiens beat the Florida Panthers on Saturday night and are one point behind the New York Rangers for the final Eastern playoff spot.