Much Needed

 Game 33: Leafs vs. Sens

Simon B

Very few things have been able to stop the Leafs in 2021. But time and again,  the Senators’ goalies are at the top of that list. The Leafs had already played six games against Ottawa coming into this one and were 3-3 as the puck dropped to open game seven. All three losses have been against three different goalies so when I saw that Anton Forsberg was playing in his maiden game as a Senator I immediately lost a lot of confidence in the way this game would go.

After all the goaltending controversy in Toronto this week, the Leafs came out and said that Frederik Andersen has an injury and that he'll be out for a while so the torch has been passed to Jack Campbell for now. That's something I think Leafs fans are comfortable with, given how well he has played this season (4-0 and a .965 save percentage). The Leafs lost another player this past week, too: Travis Boyd is on waivers and he went out west to Vancouver.

The Game

So we watched the Senators give a goalie his first start with the team. Risky for them: Not only is he the fifth starting goalie for Ottawa this year, but this is just his second professional start in the last calendar year. All that said, the Leafs needed to take advantage of the fact that the worst team in the division had just become even more vulnerable. 

The game began with a flurry of penalties. Yet, neither the Leafs nor the Sens could capitalize on their respective power plays.  Toronto was by far the better team getting the bulk of the scoring chances. On the third power play for Toronto, Ottawa had cleared the puck down and Campbell came out of his net to play it. He went behind the net but lost control, sending it centered right to Connor Brown, who just needed to put it into the gaping cage and give Ottawa the lead. 

Now, I like what John Tavares did right after that goal. He went over to Campbell and my very mediocre lip-reading skills were able to deduce him telling his goalie "We got your back." That right there is a captain leading the way he should.

In the second, we saw a lot more domination by the Leafs, who were able to generate tons of great scoring opportunities, but Anton Forsberg stood up to the challenge and kept Toronto off the scoresheet. I have to give full credit to the Leafs for keeping up the pressure even if the game wasn't going their way. Ottawa was barely clinging on to their lead, and it looked like just a bad bounce or a fluke would turn the whole game around in the Leafs' favor. 

A lucky bounce it was! Pierre Engvall dashed into the Leafs zone and centered to TJ Brodie. The puck deflected off of Brodie's stick, then off the crossbar then off Ilya Mikheyev's chest, and then in. If that's not a lucky goal I don't know what is. It was also good to see Mikheyev get a bounce to go his way. All season he's had so many scoring chances but hasn't capitalized much.

More of the same in the third: just domination by the Leafs all over the ice. The Sens did have a few bursts of offensive zone pressure here and there but overall, it was looking as if the Leafs would score for sure. They piled on the pressure even more and Joe Thornton (who is now on the fourth line because Simmonds has been given an opportunity with Marner and Matthews) got the puck and passed it to Jason Spezza who blasted an absolute ROCKET past Forsberg and that tied things up.

It looked as though the Leafs would just run the clock and walk away with the win but the hockey gods had a different idea. Jack Campbell came out of his net to play the puck and fumbled it AGAIN, and Alex Forementon jumped on the loose puck to score his first of the year. This one would be settled in the extra frame.

Here’s what clinched it: Matthews got a brilliant chance in front but he put it just wide. Marner collected the rebound and sauced it to Justin Holl who ripped it past Forsberg and gave Toronto a much-needed victory. Whew!

The Wrap

After all, a win is a win. This wasn't a perfect game by a long shot, but as they say "good teams always find a way" and that's what happened. Even when things looked out of reach, the Leafs didn’t pack it in for the night, and their results showed it. They can take the momentum they've got now and use it to propel themselves into this last big stretch run before the playoffs in May. No more long breaks left in the season. It's crunch time. 

Next up: Hockey Night in Canada against the Oilers

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