The Ottawa Senators did themselves a world of good in the playoff picture, withstanding a late push to top the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Saturday night.
Defensemen Tyler Kleven and Jordan Spence led the way for the Senators (36-24-9, 81 points) with two assists each. Linus Ullmark turned away 12 of 14 shots for Ottawa, which has won four of its last five.
Rookie Easton Cowan tallied a goal and an assist for the floundering Maple Leafs (29-29-13, 71 points). Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll finished with 38 saves when he was forced to man the posts for the second night in a row after Anthony Stolarz was hit in the throat by a puck during pregame warmups.
Tim Stutzle opened the scoring late in the first period on the man advantage, walking the puck into the right faceoff circle and sniping it under the arm of Woll. It was his first power-play marker since the return from the Olympic break.
Claude Giroux extended Ottawa’s lead at 9:09 of the second period, pouncing on Kleven’s low shot from the point to flip the puck up and over the pad of Woll. The goal snapped the 38-year-old’s 13-game scoring slump.
Deadline acquisition Warren Foegele made it 3-0 when he pounced on an ill-advised pass by Toronto in its defensive zone. Foegele’s soft shot deflected off Simon Benoit and into the net for his fourth tally in eight games with the Senators.
John Tavares responded with one of the Leafs’ few creative sequences on the night, trading puck possession with linemate Cowan and beating Ullmark blocker side for his 25th goal of the season.
The Senators outshot the Leafs 19-5 in a dominant middle-frame showing. Toronto has now been outshot in eight consecutive games.
The Leafs made it interesting early in the third. Cowan scored 4:52 into the period when he scored on a rebound of a Benoit shot.
But Michael Amadio quickly quashed any hope of a comeback with a goal less than five minutes later. Ridly Greig extended Ottawa’s lead back to three with 6:49 left, putting the game to rest.
The Senators sustained another injury to their defense when Dennis Gilbert left the game after taking a hard hit from Oliver Ekman-Larsson late in the third.
The Leafs were without defenseman Morgan Rielly, who aggravated a lower-body injury Friday against Carolina.
