Senators win 6th straight game, sweep season series against Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- The Ottawa Senators matched a season high with their sixth straight win, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

The Senators also won six in a row from December 11-21.

“There’s only one place that beats winning on Saturday night and that’s home but this one feels pretty darn good,” Senators goalie Linus Ullmark said. “It was a full deck from start to finish. Obviously there are some bits and pieces we weren’t always happy with but we’re not a perfect team, probably never going to be a perfect team. I don’t think any team is perfect so there are always things to work at but that’s the beauty of it.”

Claude Giroux, David Perron and Jake Sanderson scored for the Senators (36-25-5), who are 7-0-1 in their past eight and won each of the three games against the Maple Leafs this season. Linus Ullmark made 21 saves.

“I don’t know (why we’ve had success against the Maple Leafs),” Sanderson said. “I think we just get fired up for these games, fired up playing in front of these fans. Just the rivalry between us, it’s pretty cool to play here.”

William Nylander and Auston Matthews scored and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs (39-24-3), who are 1-4-1 in their past six.

“I think the margins have been really small the last couple games but just details, details in our game I think haven’t quite been there and it’s on us to figure that out and we’ve got to get it through our heads that all these games, especially some of the teams we are playing, are going to be playoff-like games,” Matthews said. “There are teams fighting for their lives, trying to make a push. They are desperate teams like the one we played tonight so we have to wrap our heads around that and just be better all-around as a team.”

The Senators went up 3-2 at 14:08 of the second period when Giroux’s shot from the right hashmarks by the boards was inadvertently deflected in the slot by Toronto's Chris Tanev on the power play.

“I thought their three goals were all about losing battles inside the blue line," Toronto coach Craig Berube said. "We didn’t win enough battles there and that’s an area of the game, it’s urgency for me and details in the first two periods that weren’t there but when we decide to have urgency and do things the right way, we’re a way better team in the third but we’re behind and sometimes you don’t come back. We had chances but that’s what happens.”

The Maple Leafs had a power play at 14:51 of the third period when Artem Zub was assessed a two-minute minor for delay of game - puck over glass but failed to score.

Ottawa thought it had scored into an empty net with 1:10 remaining but the play was determined to be offside after a successful coach's challenge by Toronto.

Michael Amadio did score into an empty net at 19:53 for the 4-2 final.

“It got a little hairy down the stretch obviously,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “That was a huge kill for our group against a power play that’s very potent. We had some chances at the empty net as well that we’d probably like to have back but again, I think it goes back to staying the course and we talk a lot about doing whatever it takes to get the job done and we had everyone in that room buying in tonight.”

Toronto went up 1-0 at 6:49 of the second period when Nylander carried the puck from above the right face-off circle, cut across the top of the goal crease and backhanded a shot between Ullmark’s pads.

Sanderson tied it 1-1 at 7:57 when he took a cross-slot pass from Tim Stutzle and shot over Stolarz’s blocker from the left face-off dot.

“I had a look in the first period and I missed it so I kind of knew I was going in the same spot so it was a great pass by Timmy,” Sanderson said.

Matthews put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 at 8:55. After Ullmark misplayed the puck, he was attempting to clear it when it was controlled by Matthews above the left hashmarks. With Ullmark out of position, he shot into an open net.

Perron tied it 2-2 at 12:16 when he took a pass from Drake Batherson and shot over Stolarz’s glove from the left face-off dot.

“I think we for the whole game everybody was bought in to how we wanted to play,” Giroux said. “They’re a really good team on the other side and there are stretches during the game where they were kind of on top of us and they were playing well but we did a good job of staying composed and playing the 60 minutes the way we wanted to.”

NOTES: Senators forward Brady Tkachuk extended his point streak to nine games with an assist on Sanderson’s goal (seven goals, three assists)… Nylander’s goal extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, six assists)… Maple Leafs forward Scott Laughton left the game midway through the third period and did not return after taking a stick near the eye. Berube said he was fine but will need a few stitches.