Tkachuk, Senators pull away to defeat Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Brady Tkachuk scored twice to help the Ottawa Senators defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.

"Everyone elevated tonight," said Tkachuk, the Ottawa captain. "Those are the games with a lot of emotion and a lot of energy, and I think our guys played a [heck] of a game.
"We're starting to become that confident bunch that we've really faced a lot of adversity this year and I feel like we're just turning in the right direction. We looked ourselves in the mirror and talked about how bad we wanted it. So, you're seeing guys who are definitely elevating their game."

Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist,
Tim Stutzle
had two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 31 saves for the Senators (22-23-3), who have won two in a row, including a 2-1 victory against the New York Islanders on Wednesday. Ottawa scored the final four goals of the game.
The Senators host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
"I just thought we played with a lot of confidence," coach D.J. Smith said. "I thought we did against the Islanders and it carried over tonight. Just made more plays, carried the puck, just a lot of good efforts."
Joey Anderson and William Nylander scored, and Ilya Samsonov made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (30-12-8), who were 4-0-1 in their previous five and are 2-1-0 through three games of a five-game homestand. Samsonov fell to 14-1-1 at home this season.
"We played good in the first period, and then we just fell away from that," Nylander said. "We didn't win our battles and let them take over the game.
"For sure I think we took our foot off the gas. I mean, that's unacceptable. So, we've got to work on that. That's something we've got to improve on."

Samsonov's fifth start in a row was unexpected after coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed following the morning skate that Matt Murray would start his first game since being pulled Jan. 17, when he allowed four goals on eight shots in a 5-4 overtime win the Florida Panthers.
"He's been dealing with something that flared up on him tonight, so he wasn't available to play," Keefe said.
Murray remained on the bench as the backup throughout the game, though Keefe said Murray would not have been able to play if needed and that Toronto would have had to go to an emergency backup goalie. Keefe said the issue is not related to the adductor injury that kept Murray out 12 games from Oct. 15 to Nov. 8.
The coach said it was unclear whether Murray would be sidelined further and that there would be an update Saturday.
"You can't lose like that on home ice," Keefe said. "You can't have a goalie who has been giving us absolutely everything and comes in in a tough spot and then you have a performance like that in front of him in the second and third period, you can't have that. It should eat at us but we'll forget about it because we practice tomorrow and then another game coming, and in a couple weeks' time we won't remember anything about this. But in the moment here, there are some things for us to learn about for sure."

The Maple Leafs were without center Auston Matthews, who will be out a minimum of three weeks with a knee sprain sustained in a 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers on Wednesday. Matthews is third on Toronto with 53 points and second with 25 goals.
The Senators went ahead 3-2 on the power play at 9:57 of the second period when Derick Brassard's pass across the goal crease went in off the stick of Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren.
Drake Batherson pushed the lead to 4-2 at 16:37 when he scored from the left face-off circle after Shane Pinto fed him from left corner.
Tkachuk made it 5-2 with his second of the game at 3:31 of the third period when he shot over Samsonov's glove from the right dot.
"It's hard maybe coming in like that," Nylander said of Samsonov's surprise start. "I think he made a lot of good saves, but we just weren't there to help him out tonight."
Giroux cut into the slot and shot blocker side for the 6-2 final at 14:53 following a Toronto turnover in the neutral zone.
"It's huge for us," Tkachuk said. "To have that confidence, this is a top team the last bunch of years, so for us to be able to play our game and play a full 60 minutes, it's something to build on."

Ottawa went up 1-0 at 1:32 of the first period with the teams at 4-on-4 when Thomas Chabot took a pass from Stutzle at the blue line, skated into the slot and shot blocker side.
Anderson tied it 1-1 at 7:15 when he received a pass from Alex Kerfoot and shot from the left dot.
The Senators went up 2-1 at 23 seconds of the second period when Tkachuk deflected Travis Hamonic's point shot at the top of the goal crease.
Nylander tied it 2-2 at 2:44 when he jammed in a loose puck behind Forsberg on the power play.
"I think you can look at the effort to a certain extent, you can look at execution, turnovers," Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. "There's lots of things that we didn't do well tonight and lots of areas where we lost to them, not just on the score sheet. It's an opportunity to learn from it. We've got two more [games] between now and the [All-Star] break, so we've got to make sure we get better and execute."
NOTES: Nylander has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak. ... Giroux has five points (two goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak.