Max Domi delivers own magic moment in Game 2 for Maple Leafs 

TORONTO -- With one flick of his wrists, Max Domi produced a signature Toronto Maple Leafs moment Tuesday that had been more than 20 years in the making.

Much to the chagrin of Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green.

More than two decades earlier, Max was a 7-year-old boy running around the Maple Leafs dressing room occupied by then-Toronto players like his father Tie, godfather Mats Sundin, and Green, a gritty forward who had been acquired as part of a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on June 12, 2001. Ten months later, Max watched them eliminate the Senators in seven games in the 2002 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Fast forward 23 years to another Battle of Ontario postseason classic, this time between Domi’s Maple Leafs and Green’s Senators.

And it was on this big stage, in the same Scotiabank Arena where his dad and Green had once been teammates, that the Maple Leafs forward had arguably the biggest thrill of his NHL career.

Indeed, Domi’s dramatic goal at 3:09 of overtime gave the Maple Leafs a 3-2 win against Green’s Senators in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round. The victory gave Toronto a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, which now shifts to Ottawa for Game 3 Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP, ESPN2).

As his teammates swarmed Domi in celebration, Green thought about how far that little boy he once knew had come in his hockey career.

“Energetic guy,” Green recalled. “I could tell he was going to be a good hockey player from a young age. And obviously I know his dad well.

“Always like to see him have success, but obviously not tonight.”

His teammates certainly did, not to mention the 19,333 euphoric Toronto fans in the building.

And as the arena went bonkers and the goal horn blared signifying the winner, Domi dropped to one knee and started pumping his fist before being mobbed by the rest of the Maple Leafs.

When complimented for his celebration afterward, he just shook his head.

“My dad’s going to kill me,” he said half-jokingly.

Such is the pressure when you are the son of a former Maple Leaf.

Of course, at first blush, dear old dad didn’t seem to mind, judging by the way he was jubilantly exchanging handshakes and hugs with those around him in the Scotiabank Arena stands in the wake of Max’s winner.

From 1995-2006, forward Tie Domi captured the imagination of the Maple Leafs fan base, even among those who weren’t his biggest fans. Known for his toughness and his on-ice zeal, he forged a legacy as being one of the more colorful characters in team history.

Those certainly were big footsteps for Max to follow when he signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Maple Leafs as a free agent on July 3, 2023. On June 30, 2024, he followed that up with a four-year, $15 million contract ($3.75 million average annual value) with Toronto, ensuring he’d be locked in long-term with the team for which his dad played 777 NHL games.

There were trying times for him this season, to be sure.

Consider that he didn’t score his first goal of 2024-25 until his 23rd game of the season, coming in a 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 15. It was that kind of up-and-down ride for Max, who finished the regular season with 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 74 games.

The playoffs, however, are a different story. And Tuesday’s belonged to him.

It came when Simon Benoit, normally a stay-at-home defenseman, went on a rare rush and carried the puck down the right wing into the Senators zone before passing to Domi. After stickhandling through a couple defensemen, he snapped a shot into the net that Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark probably still hasn’t seen.

“It’s pretty good,” Domi said when asked postgame about his emotions. “But we're just getting started, so it's going to feel even better as we go.

“Big win. Obviously, we needed that one. You’ve got to give Ottawa all the credit in the world. They played a heck of a game.”

Throughout his press conference, Domi did his best to avoid talking about himself. His teammates, however, were more than eager to do his talking for him.

“Every day is just a real privilege when you play with guys like (Domi),” Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “That's why this sport is special. You get to go into battle together and you learn a lot about one another.

“Obviously, for him to have that moment in overtime here at home is extremely special for all of us. I can’t imagine how he's feeling. A big moment for our team, a big moment in this series.”

If anyone could appreciate what Domi was going through, it was another local kid, forward Scott Laughton.

When Laughton was 4 years old, and Max was 3, they skated together at Canlan Arena in Oakville, about 25 miles west of Scotiabank Arena. As such, Laughton, who was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline, was asked if he’d ever seen Max do the move he used on the game-winner back when they were both kids.

“He was brutal when we were kids,” Laughton laughed. “He was shooting on the wrong net, so we had to teach him a couple of things.”

On Tuesday, all these years later, he shot on the right net, and it will be a special memory he’ll cherish for years to come.