Toronto Maple Leafs roll over Ottawa Senators 4-2

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Toronto Maple Leafs roll over Ottawa Senators 4-2. Here is the game summary and highlights from game played on Saturday, January 14, 2017

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

Nazem Kadri opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs at 6:26 of the first period with a power play goal and added a second goal at 2:31 of the third period. Kadri has goals (5) in four of his last five games and has seven points (5-2-7) in that span. He is one goal from the 100 career NHL goal milestone.

Tyler Bozak scored the second goal of the night for the Maple Leafs at 1:07 of the second period and had the secondary assist on Kadri’s first period goal. Bozak has eight points (3-5-8) over his last five games. Tonight’s game is Bozak’s seventh multi-point game of the season.

Connor Brown scored Toronto’s fourth goal of the game at 7:52 of the third period. Brown has goals (5) in five of his last six games and has seven points (5-2-7) in that span.

James van Riemsdyk had the primary assist on Kadri’s first period goal to extend his point streak to seven games. He has 11 points (2-9-11) in that seven game span.

Mitch Marner earned his 25^th assist of the season with the primary assist on Bozak’s second period goal. Marner has six assists over his last three games.

William Nylander registered the primary assist on Kadri’s third period goal. Nylander has points (1-1-2) in consecutive games and has eight points (3-5-8) over his last 10 games.

Matt Hunwick recorded the secondary assist on Kadri’s third period goal. Hunwick has assists (2) in consecutive games and is two points from the 100 career NHL point milestone.

Auston Matthews registered the primary assist on Brown’s third period goal. Matthews has assists (2) in two consecutive games and has 13 points (6-7-13) over his last 10 games.

Curtis McElhinney made his Maple Leaf debut tonight and had 35 saves in the win – his first with Toronto.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs were outshot by the Senators by a 37-27 margin in all situations and by a 30-24 margin at 5-on-5.

Ottawa had a 77-54 edge in shot attempts in all situations and a 63-50 lead in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

Zach Hyman led Toronto with five shots on goal.

Nazem Kadri led the Maple Leafs with eight shot attempts.

ROAD SCHOLARS

The Maple Leafs are 10-6-6 on the road this season and 3-6-1 in the second leg of back-to-backs.

The Maple Leafs have earned at least a point in 10 consecutive road games.

Toronto’s all-time record is 50-47-3-10 in 110 games against the Senators and 23-28-1-4 in games played on the road.

Toronto is 14-7-3 against the Eastern Conference this season and 9-4-1 against the Atlantic Division.

The Maple Leafs return to Air Canada Centre on Jan. 17 to kick off a four-game homestand vs. Buffalo.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

The Maple Leafs have scored a league-high 49 goals in the first period this season.

The Maple Leafs have scored at least one power play goal in five consecutive games.

Toronto is 17-4-5 when scoring first this season.

The Maple Leafs are now 14-1-5 when leading after one period and 3-1-1 when tied through two periods.

Toronto has a 14-4-3 record when outshot by their opponents.

Maple Leafs rookies combined for four points (1 goals, 3 assists) in tonight’s game. Toronto’s rookies had combined for 157 points (59 goals, 98 assists) in the Maple Leafs’ previous 40 games.

Frederik Gauthier and Nikita Soshnikov started 25 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone, which is the smallest percentage of all skaters in tonight’s game.

Morgan Rielly played 27:05 tonight, which is a new single-game high for a Maple Leaf skater this season.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Tuesday, Jan. 17 vs. Buffalo Sabres, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

Thursday, Jan. 19 vs. New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Saturday, Jan. 21 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, TSN 1050)

Monday, Jan. 23 vs. Calgary Flames, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Wednesday, Jan. 25 at Detroit Red Wings, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On getting two wins in this back-to-back:

Well obviously it’s good. We had a little break and you want to come out good – we were good going into the break so you don’t want to lose momentum. I thought the goalie tonight was excellent for us and made some big saves. You know the game is going to be tight, I thought we did a good job in the third period to get ourselves back in the situation after we had given up the lead. All in all, a good trip for us and we’ve got an off-day tomorrow, which is important.

On playing McElhinney tonight:

You know he has been in the league a long time. You know he is a good guy and a good pro and he’s calm and believes he can get the job done. I think that’s a big part of it right there is, as a goalie, you want to be in there and know you’re going to get the job done. Lou [Lamoriello] did a real good job in getting it looked after and acquiring him. It has been an issue for us, having someone to put in the net there, and obviously this was a big step.

On the team learning to win tight games like tonight:

I think a big thing is you’re expecting to win and that’s a big difference. What you expect you often get because you do things to make that happen. We’re learning. We still came down the ice with four minutes left and turned the puck over – that’s crazy – but the bench reacted good and we looked after it after that. You have to learn how to win in the National Hockey League, it’s a tough league. Tonight was a good step.

CONNOR BROWN (1 GOAL, 16:20 TOI)

On scoring on his 23rd birthday:

It’s nice to pot one on your birthday, it makes it more fun. I thought we had a good team win today, especially in the third period.

On getting his goal off the faceoff:

[Matthews] told me he was going to go forward and I was like, ‘Maybe we should just win it back, we’re up one.’ I’m happy he went for it.

On if he expected the play to work after Matthews drew it up:

A lot of the time when you go forward like that it’s a loss, but I’ve played with one other guy other than Matthews that could do it – McDavid – so I’ve been on the right end of those.

On the third period performance:

It was good. Obviously it was a tough second, you get a lead like that and we gave it up. Our leadership group did a good job in here to make sure we were prepared in the third and we came out strong.

NAZEM KADRI (2 GOALS, 8 SHOT ATTEMPTS)

On tonight’s win as a confidence boost:

For sure. It’s a hostile building to come in to, obviously playing a good team and the standings are tight. We were up two early and we gave up that lead so I’m proud of the guys. It was a real character win, staying with it and getting two more.

On McElhinney’s debut:

That was unbelievable. He played great and gave us an opportunity to win the game. That first star was definitely well deserved. He’s a big guy, he moves laterally pretty well and seems very athletic. Definitely a solid debut.

On the third period performance after giving up a lead:

They kind of pushed early in the third, we were able to – [McElhinney] made some great saves to keep us in it – and then we were able to get a few cycle chances and ended up scoring off of faceoff plays. That got our momentum going and then after that I feel like we weren’t on our heels so much.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (1 ASSIST, 16:26 TOI)

On the performance of his line tonight:

Honestly, tonight, I don’t think it was our best game but in the third period we got it turned around. Our pace of play was much better and we were controlling the puck. It was a nice goal there at the end to give us some insurance. You’re always going to have these nights where there’s kind of no space out there. As a line we didn’t really do too much out there but we’ll learn from it and just move forward. It’s a big two points for us, [McElhinney] was huge in net. We just want to keep rolling.

On Brown’s goal:

We kind of planned it beforehand – I said I was going forward and he found a really good spot. I kind of just knew where he was going to be and he put it in a really nice spot there on his goal. Like I said, it was a really nice insurance goal for us late there in the third.

CURTIS McELHINNEY (35 SAVES, WIN)

On getting a win in his debut:

Obviously that was the most important thing. It was a tough game after coming back – big win in New York the other night. To come in here and get another win feels great.

On if he expected to play tonight’s game:

That was made clear to me early on. I think that’s the situation – they want to have somebody they can trust that they can put in on those back-to-backs or three-in-fours or other situations. For me it was just going in there and building some trust with the guys.

On if there was an adjustment to playing behind his new team:

Yeah, I think it’s one of those things. You’re always trying to figure out what they’re going to play like defensively, offensively and all that stuff. There is a little bit of sorting out but, for the most part, I felt pretty comfortable right off the bat.