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The Toronto Maple Leafs take a commanding 2-0 series after winning Game 2 in OT 3-2 over the Ottawa Senators. Max Domi scored the OT winner to give the Maple Leafs a critical win.
Toronto was up 2-0 after the first period. But Ottawa came back thanks to goals from Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette.
For the first time since 2002, the Maple Leafs have a 2-0 series lead. The series shifts to Ottawa as the Senators attempt to come back from 2-0 down.
Read more about Toronto's Game 2 win below.
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Leafs salvage win in Game 2 with Max Domi OT winner: 5 takeaways
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Ranking: No. 6
With a Cup drought about to hit six decades, the Leafs were second in last year’s rankings. The year before that, they were such an obvious pick for number one that we didn’t even bother including them in the list.
Now they’re yet another year into their “can’t win when it matters” era, and they’re a big favorite against a provincial rival whose fan base lives for beating Toronto. Lose here and Leaf fans will never hear the end of it. Oh, and one of their best players would probably leave as a free agent.
So shouldn’t they be ranked higher? Maybe. I can see the case. But also … I mean, at some point, the story just gets old, right? We’ve done this so many times with the Leafs that the annual stories about last stands now have to be qualified as “ultimate” last stands. They really mean it this time!
At some point, pressure stops being pressure and just turns into noise, and it feels like the Leafs have eaten their way through to the other side. Win or don’t win. Blow it up or don’t. A big chunk of the fan base is just numb at this point. They still rank high, but the monotony of this recycled story means they’re not as high as you might expect.
If they lose, it will be … impossible to run it back, right up until they do.
Read the full rankings below.
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2025 NHL playoff pressure rankings: Which teams can’t afford to lose?
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By Chris Johnston and Jonas Siegel
It was the day before Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators and practice was over for the Maple Leafs.
But not for Max Domi.
Beginning sometime in late February, Domi began taking part in the post-practice skills sessions John Tavares had been soldiering his way through all season with Patrick O’Sullivan, the former NHLer and current Leafs development coach. This was one of those days.
Domi worked on his passing. And — perhaps more importantly now with the benefit of hindsight — he worked on his shot.
What was his focus in all this extra work?
“I can’t tell you,” Domi told The Athletic, grinning, over the weekend. “I would, but because it’s (the) playoffs I can’t. But yes, we are working on stuff for sure.”
That “stuff” paid off in the biggest possible way in Game 2.
Domi saved the Leafs from a potentially devastating unraveling — a 2-0 first-period lead squandered — when he beat Linus Ullmark from 28 feet with the overtime winner on Tuesday night. The goal gave the Leafs a 2-0 series lead.
Read more below.
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Max Domi spent months preparing for his Game 2 winner for the Maple Leafs
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Last year in the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs went 1-for-21 on the powerplay against the Boston Bruins. This year, something special is happening with this unit.
Led by five forwards, the Maple Leafs have four powerplay goals in 38 seconds in the first two games of this series. Ottawa doesn't even have time to set up on the penalty kill and Toronto is scoring goals.
Remarkable stuff.
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Through two games, the "Core Four" Toronto Maple Leafs forwards of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander have combined for 14 points.
Tavares and Marner lead the team with four points in the playoffs.
It will be interesting to see if Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube makes any lineup changes for Game 3. David Kampf and Max Pacioretty haven't played in this series yet.
With Toronto giving up a two-goal lead and letting Ottawa back into Game 2, it may be time to shake things up for Game 3.
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Yes, you read that right. This isn't a dream. The Toronto Maple Leafs could go up 3-0 in a series with a win on Thursday against the Ottawa Senators.
The last time the Leafs were up 3-0 in a playoff series was 2001 against the Senators. Toronto ended up sweeping Ottawa in that series.
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Watch below Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz take a roughing penalty against Ridly Greig after the Ottawa Senators forward was bothering him all night.
"I was just caught up in the heat of the battle… I didn't even know who it was," Stolarz said on his altercation with Greig.
Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green played alongside Tie Domi for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He remembers Max Domi, Tie's son, in the dressing room as a kid.
"Very energetic," Green said.
Years later, it's Max who scores the OT winner against Green's team.
"I could tell he was going to be a good hockey player from a young age," Green said.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs are 117-171-2 all-time on the road in the playoffs. In their last playoff series against Ottawa, the Leafs were 1-2 on the road.
In Toronto's first playoff series win in 19 years against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2023, the Maple Leafs won all three of those road games.
The last time the Ottawa Senators hosted a playoff game at the Canadian Tire Centre was 2017. They lost in the Eastern Conference final to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games.
Safe to say, the Kanata, Ontario barn will be packed for Thursday night for a critical Game 3.
The series now shifts to Ottawa. Game 3 between the Maple Leafs and Senators occurs on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.
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Safe to say the Maple Leafs players and fans inside Scotiabank Arena were excited about Max Domi's OT winner in Game 2.
Watch below.
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Simon Benoit finds Max Domi, who scores the OT winner in Game 2.
Watch below as Domi becomes the Maple Leafs' OT hero to put Toronto up 2-0 in the series.
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By Joshua Kloke and Julian McKenzie
It wasn’t pretty, but the Toronto Maple Leafs will head east along the 401 to Kanata up 2-0 in their first-round series against the Ottawa Senators.
Morgan Rielly and John Tavares scored first-period goals and Max Domi sent Scotiabank Arena into a frenzy with his overtime winner as the Leafs ultimately hung on for a 3-2 win.
The last time the Leafs went up 2-0 in a playoff series? Way back in 2002, in the first round against the New York Islanders.
The Leafs had to rely heavily on one of their most important players of their season, goaltender Anthony Stolarz. As the Leafs’ pace slowed and they struggled to generate decent scoring chances in the second period, the Senators took over the game. Yet Ottawa struggled to beat Stolarz, who ended up making 26 saves in the win. There’s a case to be made that the Leafs were lucky to get to overtime and get the win.
The Senators deserve credit for the pushback they showed. This series could get more interesting as it heads to an arena that hasn’t seen playoff hockey since 2017.
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Good morning!
Yes Leafs fans…rejoice! Toronto is up 2-0 in a series for the first time since 2002. It's still a long way to go, but what a wild Game 2 win.
Follow along during our off-day coverage between Games 2 and 3 as we provide all the news, updates and analysis on Toronto's first-round series against Ottawa.
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For all the heightened energy the Leafs brought through Game 1 and the first period of Game 2, their second-period lull is notable. We knew they wouldn’t be able to sustain their aggressive forechecking and high-scoring play for every period of every playoff game, sure. But the dropoff was still likely tough for Berube to stomach. His team was slower to pucks and struggled to gain offensive-zone pressure.
“We didn’t make plays,” Craig Berube said of the Leafs’ play in the period. “We just looked like we were protecting the lead.”
The Leafs generated just one high-danger chance at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick, and only two scoring chances. A needless offensive-zone penalty by Nick Robertson accentuated the lack of focus the Leafs showed in the frame. The Leafs winger saw his ice time reduced after the penalty resulted in a power play goal.
But even without the bad penalty, the Leafs were somewhat lucky to escape the period holding the lead. There is undoubtedly a feeling in the Leafs coach’s room that they escaped some danger in Game 2. Adjustments to the lineup feel more possible than they did 24 hours ago.
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The Senators might have to consider a line change or two ahead of Game 3, considering how their ‘3-D Line’ (David Perron, Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens) looked at five-on-five.
The trio was one of their most effective lines after they came together following the trade deadline. In Game 2, they were arguably the Sens’ worst.
They were dominated at five-on-five in the first period whether you’re looking at it through chances allowed, expected goals, scoring chances or high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. The line ended the first period with a 0 percent Corsi share. It improved slightly to 14.29 percent into the second period.
Cozens and Batherson looked better with Fabian Zetterlund, who found himself playing with the line when the Sens were at four-on-four and for parts of the third period. By comparison, Zetterlund-Cozens-Batherson operated at a 72.73 percent Corsi share and looked more dangerous. Zetterlund was always going to be a prime candidate to get more minutes if the Sens needed to shake up their lines. Sure enough, Senators coach Travis Green did that. But despite the changes, Cozens and Batherson were on the ice when Domi scored the overtime winner.
“To play a road game like that was very encouraging for our team,” Green said. “There is no reason to panic. We probably deserved a better fate but that’s playoff hockey.”
The Senators started slow with their high-danger chance generation and expected goals. But they improved through the second period onward.
Two goals at the net front put the Senators behind the eight-ball within the first half of the first period. Both goals came with Nick Jensen on the ice. He was tied up in front of the net on the first goal, with Drake Batherson losing Morgan Rielly. On the second, John Tavares banked the puck off of him.
As the Senators continue to work on making life difficult for Stolarz, they were beaten handily in their blue paint to start the game. Toronto led 4-2 in high-danger chances in the first period, despite the Senators leading in shots 10-7, and dominated with a 76.31 expected goal share.
But the Senators flipped the script in the second period with a 5-1 advantage in high-danger chances before Brady Tkachuk’s first playoff goal gave his team life. And while losing the high-danger chance battle in the third, the Senators outpaced Toronto with a 68.01 percent expected-goals share despite only having four shots on net.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of Anthony Stolarz to the Leafs’ win, to their chances in the series and, just maybe, a deep playoff run.
The 6-foot-6 monster of a goaltender provides not just the composure the Leafs have long lacked in past playoff series, but the attitude of a hardened winner.
Stolarz saw almost everything thrown at him through traffic and used his combination of athleticism and size to make 26 saves in the game. He ended up allowing just two goals for the second game in a row.
“He’s a gamer,” Max Domi said of Stolarz. “Always has been a gamer.”
It doesn’t feel that long ago that there was a debate over who would start in the playoffs for the Leafs: Stolarz or Joseph Woll.
Now, there’s zero debate over who is winning the goaltending battle in this series. Senators goalie Linus Ullmark looked off his game in the first period while Stolarz was dialed in.
