The Ottawa Senators aim to add to a five-game points streak Saturday night when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs to christen this season’s Battle of Ontario.
Ottawa had a four-game win streak stopped Tuesday with a 3-2 overtime home loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The Senators, however, picked up their ninth point of a possible 10 over their past five games (4-0-1).
The Maple Leafs felt some relief when they snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday afternoon with a 6-3 home victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The teams are returning from the three-day Christmas break Saturday and have reason for some optimism despite sitting outside of playoff spots.
“We’ve been winning games lately, and points,” said Ottawa’s Ridly Greig, who scored a goal on Tuesday. “Even in our losses, I think we’ve played well, so that’s good for the confidence going into the break here and hopefully we can keep that going after.”
Tim Stutzle also scored for Ottawa to extend his points streak to eight games (seven goals, eight assists).
“I’ve liked our game here for about, I don’t know, 10 games,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “Our 200-foot game is solid, we’ve out-chanced the other team, I think, almost every night for the past 10 games. We’re doing a lot of good things, we’ve just got to stick with it. A lot of hockey left.”
The teams will be meeting for the first time since the Maple Leafs took six games to defeat the Senators in a first-round playoff series last season.
One encouraging sign for the Maple Leafs on Tuesday was the play of William Nylander. He snapped an 11-game goalless drought when he scored twice and added two assists.
“He was taking pucks to the net more than anything,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “Getting open, driving it. That line made a lot of plays, which is good to see.”
Max Domi scored on an end-to-end rush to put Toronto ahead 4-3 in the third period, his first goal since Oct. 28. Toronto added two empty-net goals.
“I thought our game got better after the first period,” Berube said. “Second period was really good. We scored tonight. That’s the difference. We scored goals tonight. It was good to see Willy do what he did tonight and other guys, Max too.”
Toronto has struggled to a 1-4-1 record over the past six games. Tuesday’s game started to take on a familiar look when Pittsburgh rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in the third period.
Toronto reinstated defenseman Chris Tanev (upper-body injury) from injured reserve and he played Tuesday for the first time since Nov. 1.
He had a shot on goal and logged 17:23 on the ice.
“Missing nine weeks, you picture in your head how the game is going to go and what’s going to happen and it comes a lot quicker than you think, missing so much time,” Tanev said. “I got better as the game went on, but lots to improve on for sure.”
The Maple Leafs promoted assistant coach Steve Sullivan from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League Friday to replace assistant coach Marc Savard, who was fired earlier this week.
Savard was in charge of the power play, which has struggled this season, despite standout forwards like Nylander, Auston Matthews and John Tavares.
Toronto’s power play ranks 32nd, converting only 13% of chances for 12 goals.
–Field Level Media
