Domi scores in OT, Leafs top Senators 3-2 to grab 2-0 lead in Battle of Ontario

Toronto Maple Leafs' Max Domi (11) gets first star of the game after scoring the overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators during overtime NHL playoff action in Toronto, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press)

TORONTO — Max Domi was kicking around the Maple Leafs’ locker room when the Battle of Ontario was at its height.

The son of former tough guy Tie Domi was a youngster scuffing floors with his mini sticks when Toronto bounced the Ottawa Senators from the playoffs four times in five years more than two decades ago.

The winger now has a memorable moment of his own in the provincial rivalry.

Domi scored at 3:09 of overtime Tuesday as the Leafs survived a blown 2-0 lead to get past the Ottawa Senators 3-2 and go up 2-0 in their first-round series.

“Big win,” said the 30-year-old. “The boys stuck with it, made some plays that we had to make at the right time.”

Domi took a pass from defenceman Simon Benoit off the rush, cut to the middle and ripped his first goal of the post-season upstairs past Linus Ullmark for the winner.

“Unreal,” Leafs centre John Tavares said. “Great for him, great for our team.”

The Leafs, who took Sunday’s opener 6-2, hold a 2-0 lead in a post-season series for the first time since 2002. Tavares, with a goal and an assist, and Morgan Rielly provided the rest of the offence for Toronto, which got 26 saves from Anthony Stolarz.

“Just pure jubilation,” the goaltender said of Domi’s winner that set off wild celebrations inside and outside Scotiabank Arena. “He’s a hell of a teammate in the room, and to see someone like that get rewarded, hopefully it’s the start of something big.”

Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette replied for Ottawa, which is in the playoffs for the first time in eight years following a long rebuild. Ullmark stopped 18 shots.

The best-of-seven showdown now shifts to the nation’s capital for Games 3 and 4 beginning Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre.

“We’re looking forward to getting home,” Tkachuk said. “And honestly, there’s not one ounce of panic.”

Domi joined Toronto on a one-year deal ahead of the 2023-24 campaign before re-signing for four more seasons.

The veteran forward moved up and down the lineup in a roller-coaster 2024-25 campaign that saw him put up just 33 points across 74 contests, but showed Tuesday — as he did in last spring’s seven-game opening-round loss to the Boston Bruins — why he has the organization’s trust in important moments.

“For any player, there’s ups and downs,” Rielly said. “It’s just a real privilege when you play with guys like him. That’s why the sport’s special. You get to go into battle together and you learn a lot about one another.

“For him to have that moment in overtime here at home is extremely special for all of us. I can’t imagine how he’s feeling, but it’s a big moment for our team, a big moment in this series.”

Toronto is 10-0 all-time in series when going up 2-0 at home, and has a two-game playoff edge for just the second time in 10 tries in the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner era.

The Leafs went up 1-0 at 3:43 of Tuesday’s first period moments after Marner hit the post with Ullmark at his mercy when William Nylander’s centring pass hit a hard-charging Rielly in front for his second goal of the series.

After scoring three quick-strike goals on the man advantage in Game 1 against an inexperienced and undisciplined opponent, Toronto capitalized 18 seconds into its first opportunity when Tavares sent a puck into the crease that deflected in off Ottawa defenceman Nick Jensen at 8:20.

Stolarz decked Senators forward Ridly Greig, who slid into the netminder late in Game 1, at the end of an Ottawa power play in the second on a sequence that resulted in coincidental minor penalties.

“It gets annoying after a while, right?” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said of opponents buzzing a netminder’s crease. “I’ve seen that with goalies before. I really don’t have a problem with it.”

The visitors steadied themselves as the period wore on, while Toronto took its foot off the gas.

Ottawa cut the deficit in half at 15:41 on another man advantage when Tkachuk — again the target of “Brady Sucks” chants — sent a pass in front that hit Leafs blueliner Brandon Carlo’s skate and dribbled across the goal line.

“That’s playoff hockey … the ebbs and flows,” Stolarz said. “You have to weather the storm.”

Ottawa, which is 0-9 all-time when dropping the first two games of a series, got its equalizer with 5:13 left in regulation on a Gaudette deflection after Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson turned the puck over to set the stage for Domi’s OT heroics.

“Max has got a great history here with his dad,” Tavares said. “A great moment for him.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press