Although the official season NHL opener was on Saturday, most of the NHL's teams were playing last night. Those teams included the Leafs and the Sens.
The game started out with some controversy, as Andrew Raycroft got the call to go in net instead of Vesa Toskala. That decision would later prove costly. The 1st goal of the game was scored by Antoine Vermette, who blew by the Leafs' defender and buried it by Raycroft. But the Leafs answered with 2 quick goals, both by Nik Antropov to get the lead. But that lead was later given up, when Daniel Alfredsson scored on an easy shot from the circle. In the 2nd period, the leafs dominated. They got powerplay after powerplay, and managed to get a goal by Matt Stajan by the end of the period.
Ottawa though, did not intentions of losing this game. They fought hard through-out the period, and managed to tie it up when Dany Heatley scored on another questionable shot. From that point, it was scoreless until overtime.
In that overtime period, both teams had some chances,a and the goalies made some great saves. But on another easy shot to the 5-hole, Dany Heatly ended the game. The final score was 4-3 for Ottawa.
The key to the game was goaltending. Th Leafs out-played the Sens in every way expect for goaltending. "We generated enough offence, except for our power play," said Maurice. "Defensively, we have to be better."
The crowd got on Raycroft after Ottawa's second goal.
"I thought the first two (goals) were tough," said Maurice. "They were good shots but . . . clearly he was not loved (by the crowd) early but I think he did a really good job settling into the game, and after that I thought he was very good."
The next game in this series will go tonight in Ottawa.
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