Senators Stay Alive with 4-0 Win Over Leafs, Force Game 6

Summary:

• The Ottawa Senators recorded a 4-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
• Linus Ullmark stopped all 29 shots for his first playoff shutout. 
• Ottawa capitalized on special teams and momentum shifts to stay alive, with Game 6 set for Thursday.

The Ottawa Senators just won’t back down in this latest chapter of the Battle of Ontario, and now the Maple Leafs are under pressure to respond.

With the chance to eliminate Ottawa and move on, the Toronto Maple Leafs instead came up flat on Tuesday night. 

Linus Ullmark turned aside all 29 shots he faced to earn his first career playoff shutout as the Senators blanked the Leafs 4-0, narrowing the first-round series to 3-2.

Matthews: “Everybody’s Fine in Here”

For a franchise haunted by playoff disappointments, the Leafs are again facing familiar questions. 

They’re now just 1-13 in potential series-clinching games since Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner became the faces of the team in 2018. What once looked like a sure thing is suddenly in doubt.

27-year-old Matthews after the loss said,

Everybody’s fine in here. The playoffs, it’s a roller-coaster. It could be ups and downs. It’s about staying as even-keeled as you possibly can and making adjustments when you need to.

Toronto had jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead in the series with a dominant Game 1 win and two straight overtime victories. 

Head Coach Berube: “Our Group Was Focused and Ready to Go”

Since then, Ottawa has outworked them, especially on special teams, and played with the poise of a group that believes they can do the improbable.

Leafs head coach Craig Berube when asked about nerves.

I’m not feeling anything. Our group was focused and ready to go

Ottawa head coach Travis Green, meanwhile, emphasized the emotional swings of playoff hockey. 

It can change fast. You can feel great about yourself, you can feel (crappy) about yourself… Those are the types of things that we’ve really talked to our team (about) throughout the season. I think it’s paying dividends now.

Thomas Chabot and Dylan Cozens gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead, while Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk each added empty-netters and finished with three-point nights. 

Tkachuk summed up the team’s mindset moving forward:

Our will to win was high and I think it paid off. It’s all about now resetting and getting refocused.

The Leafs had their chances, as Matthews and Lorentz both came close, but couldn’t beat Ullmark. 

Anthony Stolarz made 15 saves at the other end but was left out to dry on a shorthanded 2-on-1 that Cozens buried.

Only four teams in NHL history have erased a 3-0 series deficit. Toronto desperately wants to avoid being the fifth to let it happen.

Game 6 shifts to Ottawa on Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre.