Toronto — The Ottawa Senators have been tagged a skillful hockey club lacking in the grit department. But they have a clever coach in Jacques Martin.
Instead of allowing his players to run around trying to prove their manhood, Martin had his team emphasize its speed, skill and defensive abilities last night as it outskated, outhustled and outchanced the Toronto Maple Leafs to score a 4-2 victory in the National Hockey League Eastern Conference quarter-final series opener.
The Leafs, who became the first home team to lose in the 2004 playoffs, had difficulty dealing with the Senators' quickness and were outraced to loose pucks all evening.
Toronto appeared nervous and had difficulty establishing a fore-check, and its defence moved the puck as if it was a hot potato.
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ed Belfour jumps to avoid Ottawa Senators right winger Martin Havlat as he slides into the goal during the game in Toronto on Thursday. (Adrian Wyld/CP)
"We struggled to get the puck deep and put pressure on their [defence]," Leafs captain Mats Sundin said.
The Leafs were on track with a good start when Joe Nieuwendyk scored on the game's fourth shift, converting a pass from Alexei Ponikarovsky. But the positive energy quickly sailed out of the Air Canada Centre and the 19,535 fans 1 minute 50 seconds later when Ottawa centre Bryan Smolinski banked a backhand pass off the left skate of Toronto defenceman Bryan Marchment and past goaltender Ed Belfour.
Even though Leafs defenceman Bryan McCabe scored a power-play goal late in the third period, the Senators took over the game at the midway point of the opening 20 minutes and wound up outshooting Toronto 30-17.
"We fore-checked and used our speed to our advantage," Smolinski said. "We weathered that early storm and came back."
This was not your typical emotional game between the provincial rivals, mostly because the Senators stuck to displaying their skill. That's not to say there was no physical play. There were plenty of board-loosening bodychecks from both teams.
"Both teams stayed away from the nonsense," Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "It was a fast-paced game, but very physical."
After the game, it was difficult to tell the Senators had won because they were very business-like in their dressing room, uttering a popular refrain of "there is still a lot of hockey to be played."
The Senators struck for two power-play goals midway through the second period to take the lead for good. An obstruction hooking penalty to Mikael Renberg and a McCabe slashing infraction when he broke the stick of Ottawa forward Marian Hossa gave the Senators a two-man advantage.
First, defenceman Wade Redden scored, and 38 seconds later, Hossa, with some new lumber, banged in his own rebound.
"When we came back and scored on the 5-on-4 [power play], that was key for us," said Hossa, who added a breakaway goal early in the third period.
The Leafs had only six shots on goal when the Senators went up 3-2 on the first Hossa goal.
"We have to get more shots," Leafs winger Chad Kilger said. "But they played good, tight defence and we turned the puck over too much."
The crucial turnover was when Vaclav Varada stole the puck from Leafs defenceman Calle Johansson at the Senators' blueline to send Hossa in for his breakaway goal.
The Leafs have been good at bouncing back all season. One change to aid their cause will be the return of defenceman Ken Klee, who is recovering from a shoulder injury. He'll return to the lineup for the second game at the Air Canada Centre tomorrow, and possibly forward Darcy Tucker from his abdominal strain.
Martin made a bold move when he banished 22-goal scorer Jason Spezza to the press box in favour of fourth-line centre checking centre Antoine Vermette.
It was important for the Senators to overcome their mental block at beating the Leafs. Ottawa had lost the three previous playoff meetings. Although he was not overworked, Senators goaltender Patrick Lalime demonstrated he has sufficiently recovered from a knee injury that kept him out of the final four games of the regular season.
The skinny
The good: Ottawa's Marian Hossa was wonderful, with a two-goal outing.
The bad: The Leafs lacked their usual emotion against their provincial rival.
The ugly: A yahoo in a Leafs sweater got onto the ice to protest against the officiating.
