The Toronto Maple Leafs had their fans on the edge of their seats from the second period on, and not in a good way.
After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Morgan Rielly and John Tavares, the Ottawa Senators turned on the jets and played like a completely different team than the one the Leafs saw on Sunday in Game 1. They controlled possession for the majority of the final 40 minutes while the Leafs took two careless high-sticking penalties, one of which led to Ottawa’s first goal of the game.
Max Domi in particular was having a rough go, namely with his presence on the ice for Ottawa’s tying goal with less than five minutes to go in the third period. Craig Berube continued to use him normally, even giving him a promotion to the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander, and he made the most of the opportunity.
The Leafs were prepared for pushback from the Senators after taking advantage of their raw, inexperienced emotion in Game 1, and the Senators delivered. They outshot the Leafs 28-21, and despite the Leafs holding them without a shot for the first 15 minutes of the third period, they capitalized on a bad Leafs play and punished them for it just like the Leafs did to them in Game 1.
Morgan Rielly deserves a shoutout for bringing his ‘playoff Mo’ character to the dance this year. He has two goals in two games so far despite being subject to criticism for much of the regular season due to his weak offensive numbers and less-than-stellar play in his own zone. It seems that all he needed was a partner he could play comfortably with, and along came Brandon Carlo to fulfill that role. The Leafs were last in the NHL in goals from their defencemen, but now have three in two playoff games between Rielly’s two and one from Oliver Ekman-Larsson. If Rielly can become a legitimate threat from the point again, they’re going to be that much harder to stop.
Anthony Stolarz was excellent for the second game in a row, stopping 26 of 28 shots for the win and giving some payback to Ridly Greig for his antics in Game 1 along the way.
The Leafs are up 2-0 in a series since the first time since 2002, and will head to Ottawa on Thursday to try and put the Senators on their heels in the series. They’ll need a better effort from start to finish, but if you can secure the win, nobody looks back on the puck possession numbers from the second period.
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