Shane Pinto’s goal off his leg with 9:13 left in the third period lifted the Ottawa Senators to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Tim Stutzle also scored for Ottawa, which avoided being shut out for the third straight game. Anton Forsberg made 28 saves in the victory.
Bobby McMann, recently promoted to Toronto’s top line, gave the Maple Leafs an early lead with his 14th goal of the season. Mitch Marner notched his 53rd assist of the campaign, but Toronto didn’t do nearly enough offensively for goaltender Joseph Woll, who stopped 21 shots in what ended up being the Leafs’ second straight loss.
The Senators recorded the go-ahead goal on a fortunate sequence. Matthew Highmore’s pass behind the net hit Marner’s stick. Highmore followed that by swatting the popped-up puck toward Pinto, who then scored and had his ninth goal of the season upheld after a brief review.
Toronto could not force overtime, as Forsberg made a save through traffic on a shot from McMann with five seconds remaining. The ensuing faceoff went away from both teams, preventing the Maple Leafs from getting one last shot off.
The Maple Leafs broke through at the 3:46 mark of the first period when Marner, stationed behind the Ottawa net, found McMann in the high slot for a marker despite there being four Senators congregated around the goal.
Stutzle scored the equalizer at 10:43 of the first on a slap shot while on the power play.
Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson returned to action after missing Thursday’s game against the Boston Bruins due to a lower-body injury, and fellow defenseman Travis Hamonic (lower-body injury) played for the first time since Jan. 3.
Still, Ottawa could not avoid adding to its injury toll. Nick Cousins left the game about eight minutes into the first when his left leg collided with the left leg of Toronto’s Jacob Quillan, who made his NHL debut on Saturday. Cousins had to be helped off the ice.
–Field Level Media
