Ilya Samsonov stopped 30 shots to earn his fourth shutout of the season as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-0 Saturday night.
It was the 10th career shutout for Samsonov, who was starting in goal for the second game in a row and made numerous key saves.
Michael Bunting, William Nylander and Radim Zohorna scored for the Maple Leafs (45-20-10, 100 points), who are trying to clinch second place in the Atlantic Division.
Mads Sogaard stopped 13 shots for the Senators (37-34-5, 79 points) in two periods. He was replaced by Cam Talbot, who stopped all four shots he faced.
The Senators had won their two previous games in their pursuit of a wild-card spot.
Ottawa had the only power play of the goalless first period and had a 10-5 advantage in shots on goal.
Toronto’s Calle Jarnkrok hit the crossbar 19 seconds into the second period.
Bunting gave Toronto the lead at 1:23 of the second period when he scored his 22nd goal of the season on a 26-foot wrist shot from the left circle following an Ottawa turnover.
Nylander scored his 37th goal of the season at 12:56 of the second on a 27-foot shot from the slot.
Zohorna, just called up from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, scored his first goal of the season on a 30-footer from the left circle at 18:09 of the second. Jake McCabe made the feed to Zohorna to pick up an assist on the play.
Ottawa led 18-16 in shots on goal after two periods.
Samsonov continued to frustrate the Senators with strong saves on Artem Zub and Alex DeBrincat in the third period.
Ottawa could not take advantage of a power play when Nylander was called for hooking at 12:33 of the third period.
Among those who did not play for Ottawa were Derick Brassard (fractured fibula), Travis Hamonic (lower-body injury), Thomas Chabot (upper-body injury) and Jakob Chychrun (lower-body injury).
The Senators recalled defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker from Belleville of the AHL.
Noel Acciari (neck) did not play for the Maple Leafs.
–Field Level Media
