Tom Pyatt scored to break a deadlock with 3:05 left, and Craig Anderson made 45 saves to lift the Senators to a 4-3 win over the Leafs on Wednesday night in Toronto.
Pyatt finished a three-on-one rush to net the winning goal, giving the Senators 11 victories in their last 14 meetings (11-1-2) with Toronto.
Ottawa (15-18-9) never trailed but twice blew the lead before the Air Canada Centre crowd.
A fortunate bounce was key to Ottawa's Thomas Chabot opening the scoring midway through the opening frame.
Chabot's sharp-angled crossing pass banked off Roman Polak's skate while the Toronto defenseman was preventing a Senators player from gaining position, and the puck bounced past Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen.
Mike Hoffman doubled Ottawa's lead less than two minutes into the second period when he was left alone at the doorstep and had an easy tap-in off a nifty feed from Matt Duchene.
Despite the score, the Leafs were carrying the play, and were finally rewarded when Andreas Borgman put them on the board late in the middle frame. His point shot banked off Duchene and past Anderson on Toronto's 30th shot on goal.
James van Riemsdyk pulled Toronto even 54 seconds into the third period with a pretty effort -- not only to get a shot on goal from in tight but also to tally on the rebound. It was his 19th goal of the season, putting him on pace to exceed his career high of 30 goals in a campaign.
That set the stage for the exciting finish.
Gabriel Dumont restored Ottawa's lead when he pounced on a loose puck after his shot from the slot went high and wide and chipped it past Andersen at 2:15 of the third. Toronto's Morgan Rielly again tied the clash with a seeing-eye point shot that made its way through the screen at 12:28.
Andersen stopped 28 shots for the Maple Leafs (25-17-3).
--Field Level Media
Ottawa | Toronto | |
Matt Duchene 2 | Points | Tyler Bozak 2 |
Thomas Chabot 1 | Goals | Andreas Borgman 1 |
Matt Duchene 2 | Assists | Tyler Bozak 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Craig Anderson .938 | Save Percentage | Frederik Andersen .875 |
Craig Anderson 45 | Saves | Frederik Andersen 28 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Ottawa | 32 | 4 | 0-1 | 3-3 | 6 | 30 |
Toronto | 48 | 3 | 0-3 | 1-1 | 2 | 45 |