Senators stay alive thanks to OT penalty kill, Matthews’ post shot in Game 4 win

OTTAWA -- Travis Green walked into his postgame press conference, glanced around the room of gathered media and asked “Are you still here?”

This much is certain: the Ottawa Senators coach certainly is.

And so is his team, as unlikely as it might have seemed at certain moments on Saturday.

Indeed, the Senators will live to see another day in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, thanks to a Jake Sanderson goal at 17:42 of overtime that gave Ottawa a dramatic 4-3 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Canadian Tire Centre.

At the same time, Green understands how close the Senators’ season came to being over.

Specifically, the two-inch diameter of a goal post.

That’s the difference between the Senators playing in Game 5 on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN), and teeing it up at the local golf course for the start of a long offseason.

Had the attempt by Toronto forward Auston Matthews gone in the net early in overtime instead of clanking the pipe, the Maple Leafs would have won the game and celebrated their first four-game postseason sweep since 2001. It would have propelled them to the second round and a date with either the Florida Panthers or Tampa Bay Lightning.

Instead, the Senators narrowed the Maple Leafs’ lead to 3-1 with the best-of-7 series heading back to Toronto.

Such is the slim margin between celebration and elimination, an emotional roller coaster that Green knows all too well.

“That's a team that's supposed to win a Stanley Cup, or at least be talked about,” Green said of Toronto. “You're not going to go in and steamroll them.

“You're going to have moments when things are going to happen. You're going to have moments where there are going to be changes in momentum. So if anyone thinks this is going to be easy, it's not. It's going to be hard.”

It certainly was Saturday, especially when Senators forward Drake Batherson was assessed a double minor for high-sticking at 4:37 of overtime.

A Maple Leafs power play that had gone 5-for-12 in the series looked to end it. And it almost did, too, when the Toronto captain clanked the bar to the left of goalie Linus Ullmark.

Somehow, someway, Ottawa’s penalty killers survived that scare, blanked the high-octane Maple Leafs power play for the rest of the penalty, and gave their team a chance, much to the chagrin of Toronto.

“I mean, that’s four long minutes when you’re sitting there watching,” Senators forward David Perron said. “They did a heck of a job. I mean, Toronto has had their way a little bit when it comes to special teams.”

Not on this night.

Indeed, along with killing off that penalty, Shane Pinto scored a huge short-handed goal in the second period. In the end, Ottawa’s special teams were as much a reason for the victory as Sanderson was.

Of course, give the Ottawa defenseman credit for making certain the efforts of his penalty killers did not go for naught, thanks to his seeing-eye winner that found its way through a screen and into the Toronto net.

“Honestly, just came off the bench, saw the puck was about to come out of the zone, and just hurried, just threw it to the net,” Sanderson said.

Which it went into, causing the fans to go bonkers over the team’s first playoff win since 2017.

Too often in this series, the Senators had passed up such shots, either attempting to make fancy plays or being far too hesitant in their releases. The result: After recording just two shots in the third period of Game 3, a 3-2 loss, they had just one in the second period on Saturday.

Green’s message to his team in the intermission between the third period and overtime with the teams tied 3-3 was clear: Stop trying to be so cute and put pucks on net.

Message received.

“It was awesome, especially just ending up on the glass there and turning to see all [my teammates] so excited,” Sanderson said. “And, I mean, I feel we’ll enjoy this for a little bit tonight.

“But you know, we have to shift our focus pretty quick.”

Only four teams in NHL history have overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason series: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings, the 1975 New York Islanders against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins, and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings against the San Jose Sharks.

For their part the Senators still believe. To do that, they need only look to forward Claude Giroux, who was part of that 2010 Flyers team.

Unlikely? The odds say yes.

But thanks to the help of a goal post, they still have a chance.

“That,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said, “is all we can ask for.”