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The Toronto Maple Leafs advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, beating the Ottawa Senators in six games. The Leafs won Game 6 4-2 in a thrilling game.
Toronto got out to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Auston Matthews and William Nylander. But Ottawa rallied with two goals to tie from Brady Tkachuk and David Perron in the third period.
With the game tied 2-2, Max Pacioretty scored the go-ahead goal, sealing the series victory for Toronto.
The Leafs now face the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the second round. Read more below.
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Leafs finally oust Senators, move on to Round 2: Game 6 takeaways
It's the wee hours of Friday morning. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's their second playoff series win in the last three seasons.
Yes, Leaf fans. This is real life. They didn't let the Ottawa Senators force a Game 7. They didn't let a reverse sweep become a reality.
In a few days, the Leafs begin their second-round series against the Florida Panthers. Can they find a way to knock out the defending champs to advance to the Eastern Conference final?
It will be a fascinating series. Celebrate well Leaf fans and get ready for Round 2. We'll be here providing live coverage as the Leafs continue their Stanley Cup Playoffs journey.
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The only lineup change Craig Berube made after two losses in a row was sending veteran forward Max Pacioretty up to the second line alongside John Tavares and William Nylander. Berube had relied on Pacioretty to play with the Leafs stars earlier this season and liked the strength and physicality he brings to the line.
But it’s still hard to ignore how much Pacioretty’s lack of foot speed makes that second line defensively suspect.
You’re never going to get a ton of defensive details from any line with Nylander anyway, but moving Pacioretty alongside Nylander felt like Berube was willing to take the risks that come with the possible rewards.
The line hit a post in the first period and Pacioretty forced a turnover that led to Nylander’s goal. Those are the rewards that come with the line seemingly giving up dangerous scoring chances against every time they were on the ice.
And then: Pacioretty scored the series-clinching goal with just over five minutes left in the third period. It was Pacioretty’s first playoff goal since June 22, 2021.
It’s a gamble that paid off for Berube.
Brady Tkachuk’s first-period penalty ultimately put the Senators in some trouble after Auston Matthews converted on the power play afterward.
The Sens were further down in the hole after a Nick Jensen turnover led to the William Nylander goal. But Tkachuk found a way to make up for his earlier mistake by redirecting a Thomas Chabot point shot past Anthony Stolarz, sending the Canadian Tire Centre faithful into madness. Fans could barely contain their excitement once the jumbotron flashed the Sens’ captain on the jumbotron.
Tkachuk will always say he provided his best when needed in his first playoffs. One goal, eight hits and 18:46 time on ice in an elimination game his team needed to have. Four goals and seven points through six games for the series. It was worth the wait to have Tkachuk in the playoffs, though he probably would like to have that first-period penalty back.
Two goals from two Maple Leafs stars within two minutes: the visitors built momentum late in the first period and early in the second with shots from Auston Matthews and William Nylander. You’d have to go back to Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022 for the last time both Matthews and Nylander scored in the same playoff game.
The Leafs broke their 0-for-30 power play drought in possible series clinching games with a knuckleball of a shot from the Leafs captain.
Nylander followed with his patented wrist shot. The Senators tightened up for nearly half of the second period afterwards.
Berube can claim the onus fell on the entire Leafs team to end their poor run in possible series-clinching games. But it’s the Leafs’ core whose legacy remains on the line in these types of games. Scoring these types of goals when it matters has been a rarity for the Leafs stars. But for the first two periods of Game 6, two of the Leafs’ stars dragged their team into the fight.
The Senators seemed nervous and jittery in their opening 20 minutes of play. You would’ve thought that they had all the pressure on their back, not the Maple Leafs. It was quite apparent in their play.
The giveaways, players slipping all over the ice, Linus Ullmark letting dump-ins hit him in the pads nervously before the puck entered the corner. The Swedish netminder had Lady Luck on his side, as he’s leaned on before, when Pacioretty hit the post with a wide-open net in front of him before Max Domi redirected the puck wide of goal.
The Sens could barely enter the zone and maintain offensive-zone possession on their sole power-play opportunity of the first period. You could argue it took away momentum.
And then Brady Tkachuk took an undisciplined penalty near the end of the first period that led to Toronto’s first power-play goal in 31 opportunities in close out games since 2018. Matthews sent a shot past Ullmark to give the Leafs a lead before the intermission. The Senators would’ve been fortunate to end that period tied with the way they played.
For the Leafs, the most important takeaway from Game 6 was the fact that it won’t be followed by a Game 7.
The “Sens in 7!” chant that crept up again and again from the Canadian Tire Centre crowd. Few would have surprised had the Leafs played tight and tense through Game 6 and allowed another opportunity to close out a series slip through their fingers. Heading into Game 6, the Leafs were 1-13 in possible series-clinching games since 2018.
That statistic has been brought up again and again over the last 48 hours.
Seven games felt very possible. But it didn’t happen, and in the short term, the Leafs deserve credit for silencing the growing anxiety around them and just playing a better game than the Senators. The Leafs strung together decent chance after chance and locked things down in their own end more often than not.
Getting a clutch goal from a veteran in Pacioretty late in the third period is likely part of what GM Brad Treliving had in mind when he added all the veterans he did ahead of this season.
The Leafs looked like they did through the regular season, when they would take a lead and rely on their defensive structure to close out a game. They did that without overthinking where they were in the playoffs. For this Leafs team, that matters.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs power play scored five goals in their first round series against the Ottawa Senators. They were humming in the first three games, didn't score in Games 4 and 5, but got a critical goal in Game 6 thanks to Auston Matthews.
Against a deeper Florida Panthers team, the Leafs will need to take advantage on special teams.
The Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three of the four meetings this season. They outscored Toronto 13-7 in those four games.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews played in just three of the four Florida meetings. He did not register a goal. The "Core Four" forwards will need to be big for Toronto should they advance.
William Nylander was proud of his team's compete level throughout Game 6. He had a simple message following his team's win:
"We'll have fun tonight but the focus is on Florida," Nylander said.
Mitch Marner led the Maple Leafs with six assists through the first round. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are both tied in second place with five assists.
William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies all led the Maple Leafs with three goals after the first round. Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson each had two goals.
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Below are the point leaders for the Toronto Maple Leafs through the first round:
Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green said that he was disappointed for his players after losing in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He believes his team will learn about the "attention to detail" in the playoffs and that every shift matters. But he praised his team and believed that it was a very close series.
"I liked how our team played," Green said. "It could've gone either way."
Below are the Eastern Conference playoff matchups:
If the Leafs were to beat the Panthers, they would play the winner of the Capitals and Hurricanes.
It's the second time in three seasons the Toronto Maple Leafs are in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If they were to advance, it would be the first time the Leafs are in the Eastern Conference final since 2002.
23 years since Toronto was playing for a chance to make the Stanley Cup Final.
The Ottawa Senators hadn't been to the playoffs since 2017. Their comeback effort after being down 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs falls short.
It remains at four teams in NHL history (Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings) to complete the 3-0 down comeback.
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With tonight's Game 6 victory, the Toronto Maple Leafs have two series wins in the "Core Four" era. The other was the first round in 2023 when the Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
After a disappointing Game 5, the "Core Four" forwards of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander had a big Game 6 to win the series. They combined for five points.
William Nylander scored two goals and recorded an assist. Auston Matthews scored a goal and Mitch Marner tallied an assist.
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