TORONTO — Evgenii Dadonov scored his second goal of the game 2:19 into overtime as the Ottawa Senators roared back form a 5-1 deficit late in the second period to stun the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 on Monday night.
Connor Brown and Nick Paul, with a goal and an assist each, Drake Batherson and Artem Zub, with his first in the NHL, also scored for gutsy Ottawa (4-12-1). Marcus Hogberg stopped 33 shots for the Senators, who face the Leafs again Wednesday and Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
Auston Matthews scored twice and added an assist, while Joe Thornton, with a goal and an assist in his return from injury, Travis Boyd and Pierre Engvall provided the rest of the offence for Toronto (11-3-2). Frederik Andersen made 25 saves.
Ottawa roared back to force extra time with four straight goals, including Dadonov’s batted effort out of mid-air for his fifth of the season with 2:01 left in regulation and Hogberg on the bench for an extra attacker.
Dadonov buried his second on a breakaway in the extra period after blocking a Morgan Rielly shot in the crease with Hogberg completely out of position.
Thornton was back on Toronto’s top line with Matthews and Mitch Marner after the 41-year-old missed 10 games with a fractured rib suffered Jan. 20.
Following a 2-1 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens that saw both their four-game winning streak and nine-game point streak (8-0-1) snapped Saturday, the Leafs were shot out of a cannon early in the first.
Matthews scored his NHL-leading 12th goal in 14 games this season when he took a feed from Thornton off the rush and beat Hogberg at 6:32.
Andersen made a nice stop at the other end on Thomas Chabot as the Senators started to show life, but Toronto broke the other way, with Boyd pulling the puck around a sliding Nikita Zaitsev and firing home his second at 10:29.
The rebuilding and last-place Senators, who picked up just their second win since defeating Toronto on Jan. 15 in the club’s season opener in Winnipeg on Saturday against the Jets, cut the deficit in half 2:11 later.
Tim Stutzle — the No. 3 pick in the 2020 NHL draft — knocked down Zach Bogosian’s clearing attempt before finding Batherson with a nice pass for him to sneak his second shortside on Andersen and make it 2-1 as the Leafs held a 13-3 edge in shots through 20 minutes.
Toronto kept coming in the second, with Engvall scoring his first off a stretch pass from T.J. Brodie and another slick feed from Alexander Kerfoot on an odd-man rush at 1:49.
Brady Tkachuk then got mixed up with Andersen and Leafs defenceman Jake Muzzin. Tkachuk and Muzzin, who flipped a puck at the Ottawa winger’s older brother Matthew following a Toronto victory in Calgary against the Flames last month, dropped the gloves in a short, but spirited fight.
Thornton scored his second of the campaign at 9:51 off a pass from Matthews to make it 4-1 after Senators blue-liner Mike Reilly needlessly gave the puck away.
Matthews added his second of the night and 13th overall with just under a minute left in the period on a 5-on-3 power play, but the visitors got that one back shorthanded with nine seconds left when Paul followed up Austin Watson’s initial shot after a careless turnover by Leafs captain John Tavares for his third.
Zub scored his first in the NHL coming out of the penalty box on a beautiful deke to the forehand on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box 41 seconds into the third to get Ottawa within two at 5-3.
Toronto’s Zach Hyman was then assessed a double minor for high-sticking on Chabot, but the Leafs had the best chance when Hogberg stopped Ilya Mikheyev.
The Senators would eventually get within one, however, moments after the penalty expired when Brown, a former Leafs, scored his third at 5:52.
Hogberg made a nice stop on Hyman with under seven minutes to go to keep it at 5-4, eventually leading to Dadonov’s equalizer.
Notes: The Leafs announced before the game they had acquired winger Alex Galchenyuk from the Carolina Hurricanes for forward Egor Korshkov and defenceman David Warsofsky. Carolina dealt winger Ryan Dzingel to the Senators for Galchenyuk and centre Cedric Paquette on Saturday.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
