Senators’ confidence, momentum grow with Game 5 victory against Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Auston Matthews sat down on the bench and angrily smashed his stick on the boards, snapping it in half.

It was a rare moment of emotion from a Toronto Maple Leafs team that showed far too little of it on the ice in a 4-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Suddenly, after winning the past two games of the best-of-7 series, the Senators have momentum in their favor as they’ve narrowed the Maple Leafs’ lead in the series to 3-2 heading into Game 6 in Ottawa on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, MAX).

And they know it.

“I think it gives our team belief,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “I can’t speak for how they feel or the pressure that’s on their team.

“[But] I don’t think our group has really felt pressure from the beginning.”

It’s starting to look exactly like that.

With every passing game, the Senators are the team that seems to be exuding more confidence, more structure, more determination.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s frustrations could be symbolized by Matthews’ outburst, which came after a costly giveaway by the Toronto captain in the offensive zone led to a short-handed goal by Dylan Cozens at 8:24 of the third period to put Ottawa up 2-0 and thrust a dagger into the Maple Leafs’ comeback hopes.

Coming into the series, the Senators, having not been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2017, were acknowledged as the inexperienced team.

In Game 5, it was the Maple Leafs who looked more like one. Passes rattled off their sticks, there was far too little physicality in their game, and there was even a breakaway -- courtesy of forward Steven Lorentz -- that didn’t even result in a shot on goal.

Sure, there’s still plenty of hockey to be played in this series. But the Maple Leafs, whether they admit it or not, are battling a history that has seen them win just one postseason series since 2004.

And you can be certain Ottawa is feeding off any potential insecurities and doubts that might be rising inside the Toronto dressing room. After all, the Maple Leafs’ core of Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander is now 1-13 in games in which Toronto had the opportunity to eliminate an opponent from the postseason.

“Whenever you lose two games in a row, I mean, it’s just not a good feeling,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said when asked if the pressure in the series has now shifted to Toronto. “I mean, we lost three in a row and it was a [lousy] feeling. So, for us, we’ve just got to keep focusing on the task at hand.”

Which means an opportunity to tie the series in Game 6 in front of the home fans who were deafening in Games 3 and 4. Now, with Ottawa having the opportunity to force Game 7 with a win, Canadian Tire Centre will be at its raucous best.

“I expect pure insanity, that's for sure,” Tkachuk said. “They know how much juice they give us.”

To their credit, the Senators didn’t allow the Scotiabank Arena crowd to have that type of effect on the hometown Maple Leafs. They played a simple game, took very few chances, and quickly siphoned the energy out of the building.

That was especially true when defenseman Thomas Chabot scored at 3:46 of the second period to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. Both the Maple Leafs and their fans seemed to become more tense than ever, and Ottawa seemed to feed off it.

“The feeling is good,” Chabot said. “We played a good hockey game, a good road game tonight, and we didn’t give them a whole lot.”

And on the rare occasions they did, goalie Linus Ullmark was there to turn aside all 29 Toronto shots. Not bad for a player who was criticized for his play in Ottawa’s 6-2 loss in Game 1.

“Not surprising,” Green said. “I feel like we’ve been talking about Linus a lot in the series, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”

The same could be said about the Senators’ resurgent penalty kill. They’ve held the high-octane Maple Leafs power play off the scoreboard in the past seven opportunities, scoring a pair of short-handed goals in the process, including the key one by Cozens on Tuesday.

“I felt I had the speed to beat my guy up the ice and try and create an opportunity,” Cozens said. “And, I mean, I think anytime a team gives up a short-handed goal, it’s going to take the crowd out of it a bit.”

Matthews was understandably upset at how that play materialized. Imagine how much worse he and his teammates will be feeling if they don’t find a way to stop Ottawa’s growing surge in this series.