Stephen Halliday broke a third-period tie to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. Halliday snapped in the decisive goal past the midway point of the final frame, lifting Ottawa to a victory in its regular-season opener.
Thomas Chabot opened the scoring for Ottawa with 1:09 remaining in the first period, sending a wrist shot past Sergei Bobrovsky with assists from Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto. Toronto responded 33 seconds into the second period when Auston Matthews deflected in a feed from Morgan Rielly and William Nylander to tie the score 1-1.
Toronto gained a 2-1 advantage at 7:06 of the second period as Kirill Marchenko converted on a backhand shot during a power play off passes from Darren Raddysh and John Tavares. Ottawa leveled the score at 12:40 of the frame when Michael Amadio scored on a wrist shot set up by Tim Stützle and Chabot. Halliday then provided the winning goal at 9:46 of the third period on a snap shot, assisted by Fabian Zetterlund and Giroux.
Linus Ullmark earned the win for the Senators by turning aside 27 of 29 shots. Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves on 29 shots for the Maple Leafs. Toronto converted 1 of 4 opportunities on the power play, while Ottawa went 0 for 4. The Senators blocked 19 shots compared to 10 by Toronto and won 37 of 65 faceoffs.
Ottawa improved to 1-0-0 on the regular season with the victory. The Maple Leafs fell to 1-2-0 with the loss. Chabot paced Ottawa with a goal and an assist, while Giroux recorded two assists.
Toronto hosts the San Jose Sharks on Monday, October 19. Ottawa next hosts the Florida Panthers on Wednesday, October 21.
