(SportsNetwork.com) – The Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs are set to
meet for the first time this season on Sunday evening as they square off in a
contest that was postponed over two weeks ago due to a tragic shooting on
Parliament Hill.
The Sens were to host the Maple Leafs back on Oct. 22 at Canadian Tire Centre,
but the contest was called off after Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was shot and killed
while standing guard at the National War Memorial.
The Senators will wrap what has now become a four-game homestand. They won the
first two games of the stay before suffering a 2-1 shootout loss to the
Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
The tiebreaker reached six rounds before Winnipeg’s Mathieu Perreault wristed
a shot past Craig Anderson on the blocker side as the 12th skater.
Chris Neil tallied a power-play goal and Anderson turned aside 36 shots for
Ottawa, which did remain unbeaten at home in regulation (4-0-3).
“I thought it was a very competitive game,” Senators head coach Paul MacLean
said. “I thought both teams played hard, but at the end of the day, they were
a little better in the shootout.”
MacLean may be happy his team was able to notch a point despite missing Bobby
Ryan (bruised wrist), Alex Chiasson (lower body) and Chris Phillips (lower
body) due to injury.
The Ottawa coach also is expected to give Robin Lehner the start tonight.
Lehner has faced the Maple Leafs just once before and secured a victory by
stopping 23-of-25 shots.
The Maple Leafs halted a two-game skid and won for the fourth time in six
games with last night’s 5-4 triumph over the New York Rangers. Leo Komarov
netted the go-ahead goal with 5:34 remaining in the third period, his first
tally of the season.
“Basically, we’ve used him as a fourth-line penalty killer, but now we’re
using him as a regular in our top nine,” Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said of
Komarov. “We feel that he could go higher in our lineup. It seems he’s a lot
more confident with the puck right now.”
Richard Panik, Peter Holland, Roman Polak and Phil Kessel also lit the lamp
for the Maple Leafs, while Jonathan Bernier made 31 saves in the win.
Kessel has four goals and seven assists over a six-game point streak.
James Reimer is expected to start for the Maple Leafs and has excellent career
numbers against the Senators, going 9-2-1 with a 1.98 goals against average,
.944 save percentage and three shutouts in 13 starts.
The Maple Leafs have won nine of their past 11 versus the Senators overall and
five of the past seven played in Ottawa.
