Marner leads Maple Leafs in 6-2 win over Senators in Game 1

By Canadian Press on April 20, 2025.

TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators 6-2 on Sunday night in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

William Nylander and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto. Auston Matthews added two assists and Anthony Stolarz stopped 31 shots.

Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig scored for Ottawa, and Linus Ullmark finished with 18 saves.

The best-of-seven matchup continues Tuesday with Game 2 at Scotiabank Arena before shifting to Ottawa for two games.

The series opener marked the first playoff Battle of Ontario showdown in exactly 21 years when Toronto bested Ottawa 4-1 in Game 7 on April 20, 2004.

The teams went in opposite directions after that, with Ottawa enjoying a long run of success, including a trip to the 2007 Stanley Cup final, while Toronto made the postseason just once between 2006 and 2016.

The Leafs, who beat the Senators four times in the playoffs across a five-year stretch in the early 2000s, returned to the NHL postseason in 2017 — the last time the Senators made it — with a young core led by Matthews, Marner and Nylander.

The Senators’ rebuild, meanwhile, took a lot longer than expected, but finally gained this season. Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk finally made his playoff debut in his seventh year.

Toronto, which has one series victory in nine tries in the Matthews-Marner era, opened the scoring at 7:09 of the first period when Ekman-Larsson fired past Ullmark’s glove to send the home fans into a frenzy.

Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson cleared a puck off his goal line later in the period, but Marner took a stretch pass from Matthews moments later and roofed a shot with 7:42 left for a 2-0 lead.

Ottawa got on the board exactly four minutes later when Batherson was fastest to a rebound Stolarz was unable to smother.

The Maple Leafs goalie stopped Tkachuk on a breakaway early in the second before Toronto’s power play when to work when Tavares knocked in his own rebound at 4:07 to make it 3-1.

Toronto struck 3 seconds into a two-man advantage when Nylander ripped his team’s fourth goal on just 10 shots at 7:19.

Fabian Zetterlund had a great opportunity on an Ottawa power play late in the period, but Stolarz was there to keep the score at 4-1 through 40 minutes.

Greig got the Senators back within two exactly four minutes into the third on a delayed penalty, but Rielly made it 5-2 just 45 seconds later on a shot that hit a Senators player in front.

Knies rounded out the scoring on another power play with 6:47 left to cap the scoring.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The Associated Press

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