OTTAWA — For the time being, the demons circling the Maple Leafs and their lack of playoff success have been stuffed back in the closet.
With a 4-2 win, highlighted by a late third-period goal from Max Pacioretty, the Leafs closed out the Battle of Ontario in Game 6 and won just their second playoff series since 2004.
MAX PACIORETTY FOR THE LEAD!!! WHAT A GAME pic.twitter.com/ajpDySIJWY
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 2, 2025
There was an increasingly tense mood around the Leafs over the last 48 hours after their botched effort to close out the series in Game 5. Coach Craig Berube made efforts to quiet the noise around his team by keeping his messaging brief and punchy. But nothing would quiet that noise like a Leafs win against their provincial rivals. And they got that win by locking things down after taking a second period lead, just as they had done all season. The Leafs were 37-1-1 through the regular season when leading after two periods. That approach was evident in the third period of Game 6.
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The Senators can feel buoyed by how they fought back to force six games after going down 3-0 in the series. In their first playoff series since 2017, they improved with every game. The Senators look like a playoff team for years to come.
The Leafs will now head into a second-round match-up against the Florida Panthers. They last played each other in the playoffs in the second round in 2023, when the Panthers put the Leafs to bed in five games.
Here are some takeaways.
Leafs avoid historic collapse
For the Leafs, the most important takeaway from Game 6 was the fact that it won’t be followed by a Game 7.
The “Sens in 7!” chant that crept up again and again from the Canadian Tire Centre crowd.The Leafs had a 3-0 lead in the series. Few would have surprised had the Leafs played tight and tense through Game 6 and allowed another opportunity to close out a series slip through their fingers. Heading into Game 6, the Leafs were 1-13 in possible series clinching games since 2018. That statistic has been brought up again and again over the last 48 hours. It’s a reminder of how expected it was for this series to go to seven games.
But it didn’t, and in the short term, the Leafs deserve credit for silencing the growing anxiety around them and just playing a better game than the Senators. The Leafs strung together decent chance after chance and locked things down in their own end more often than not.
Getting a clutch goal from a veteran in Pacioretty late in the third period is likely part of what Brad Treliving had in mind when he added all the veterans he did ahead of this season.
The Leafs looked like they did through the regular season, when they would take a lead and rely on their defensive structure to close out a game. They did that without overthinking where they were in the playoffs. For this Leafs team, that matters.
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Sens show nerves early
The Senators seemed nervous and jittery in their opening 20 minutes of play. You would’ve thought that they had all the pressure on their back, not the Maple Leafs. It was quite apparent in their play.
The giveaways, players slipping all over the ice, Ullmark letting dump-ins hit him in the pads nervously before the puck entered the corner. The Swedish netminder had Lady Luck on his side, as he’s leaned on before, when Leafs forward Max Pacioretty hit the post with a wide-open net in front of him before Max Domi redirected the puck wide of goal.
huge chance to make it 1-0 pic.twitter.com/HGZTCu0pnA
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 1, 2025
The Sens could barely enter the zone and maintain o-zone possession on their sole power-play opportunity of the first period. You could argue it took away momentum.
And then Brady Tkachuk took an undisciplined penalty near the end of the first period that led to Toronto’s first power-play goal in 31 opportunities in close-out games since 2018. Auston Matthews sent a shot past Linus Ullmark to give the Leafs a lead before the intermission. The Senators would’ve been fortunate to end that period tied at zero with the way they played.
Leafs stars finally score when it matters
Two goals from two Maple Leafs stars within two minutes: the visitors built momentum late in the first period and early in the second with shots from Auston Matthews and William Nylander. You’d have to go back to Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022 for the last time both Matthews and Nylander scored in the same playoff game.
The Leafs broke their 0-for-30 power play drought in possible series clinching games with a knuckleball of a shot from the Leafs captain.
AUSTON MATTHEWS ON THE POWER PLAY!! 🚨
THE LEAFS HAVE THE FIRST LEAD OF GAME 6! pic.twitter.com/ZgiIRZsR8w
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 1, 2025
Nylander followed with his patented wrist shot. The Senators tightened up for nearly half of the second period afterwards.
THAT’S A BIRTHDAY GOAL FOR WILLIAM NYLANDER 🎉 pic.twitter.com/wbhOyDlXPl
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 2, 2025
Craig Berube can claim the onus fell on the entire Leafs team to end their poor run in possible series-clinching games. But it’s the Leafs’ core whose legacy remains on the line in these types of games. Scoring these types of goals when it matters has been a rarity for the Leafs stars. But for the first two periods of Game 6, two of the Leafs’ stars dragged their team into the fight.
(Photo: André Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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