TORONTO — Stephen Halliday supplied the separator midway through the third period, finishing a loose puck at the side of the Toronto net to send the Ottawa Senators past the Maple Leafs 3-2 in their season opener at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
Ottawa was the last club in the NHL to begin its schedule, and its first night had a little of everything: a new captain on the scoresheet, a late game-winning rebound, a key Linus Ullmark save and an injury concern on the blue line. Ullmark turned aside 27 shots as the Senators opened with two points.
With Toronto having just completed a penalty kill, Fabian Zetterlund fired from the left dot at 9:46 of the final period. The rebound fell near the crease, where Halliday got to it and pushed it past Sergei Bobrovsky for the 3-2 lead.
Thomas Chabot, skating in his first game as Ottawa captain, gave the Senators their first lead at 18:52 of the opening period. Shane Pinto’s shot was tipped in the slot by Claude Giroux, creating a rebound that Chabot buried from beside the net.
The Maple Leafs answered quickly after intermission. Auston Matthews redirected Morgan Rielly’s point shot from the slot only 33 seconds into the second, tying the game 1-1.
Toronto then moved ahead on the power play at 7:06. Darren Raddysh worked the puck from the point to Kirill Marchenko near the right side of the goal. Marchenko shifted to his backhand, moved toward the slot and beat Ullmark on the blocker side for his first goal as a Maple Leaf.
Ottawa restored level terms at 12:40 of the middle frame. Tim Stutzle threaded a pass over a sprawled-out Rielly on a 2-on-1 rush, and Michael Amadio redirected it from close range past Bobrovsky.
Ullmark made sure the score stayed even before Halliday’s winner. At 13:32 of the second, William Nylander worked around Dylan Cozens high in the right circle, slipped past Jordan Spence in the slot and tried to finish the move, but Ullmark stretched out his right toe to deny him.
Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves for Toronto, which fell to 1-2-0. Each of the Maple Leafs’ first three games has been settled by one goal.
The Senators will monitor Jake Sanderson after the defenseman departed at 12:45 of the first period and did not return. Sanderson had missed part of training camp with an undisclosed injury.
