Saturday night in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre was one for the ages. The Leafs were unable to complete their series sweep of the Senators, sending game 5 back to Toronto.

Just like the first three games in this series, Toronto came out flat. They were simply getting outworked by the Senators, in almost every aspect possible. This paid off for the Senators, as Max Domi took an unnecessary roughing penalty, sending the Leafs to the penalty kill. At 9:03 in the first period, Tim Stutzle blasted a one-timer past Stolarz to break the ice in game 4.

Later in the period, Toronto got their own powerplay, but fell 2-0 as Shane Pinto scored on a shorthanded breakaway through Stolarz’ five-hole and just trickled past the goal line.

With less than a minute to go in the opening frame, the Leafs got some momentum as they were able to get on the scoreboard. John Tavares, who has goals in 3 of the 4 games this series, tipped a shot from the point off the stick of William Nylander. The closer we came to the end of the period saw the Leafs tighten up and become more aggressive.

In a relatively low event period, the second frame saw the Leafs get even with the Senators, as Matthew Knies beat Senators defender Artem Zub to a loose puck and fought him off before firing it above Ullmark for his third goal of the series.

The third period was a lot more eventful. Both sides were very aggressive, trying to break the deadlock and try and finish the other off before the end of the game. Ottawa struck first, with David Perron giving his Sens a 3-2 lead in the first half of the period. Artem Zub was able to redeem himself from the second period by setting up this goal perfectly for Perron.

With less than 6 minutes to go in the final frame, the Leafs struck big. William Nylander was on the left side of the ice and found Oliver Ekman-Larsson with a beautiful cross-ice pass for a one-timer to tie the game right back up. Nylander finished the game with two great assists.

The Leafs pushed hard for another goal to not send the game to overtime, but the Sens held on and for the third straight game, we were headed to overtime. Both clubs were hot out of the gate, going back and forth trading quality chances to try and end the period quickly. Senators forward Drake Batherson took a double minor penalty for high-sticking, which resulted in a 4-minute power play for the Leafs. With all their efforts, they were unable to strike. John Tavares left the game briefly before this powerplay as he was knocked down on an earlier play and went to the dressing room.

With less than three minutes to go, Ottawa gained the zone and rushed the net. The puck came out to nearly the same spot that Benoit scored from in game 3, and Jake Sanderson fired the shot with traffic in front and got past Stolarz to secure the home win for the Ottawa Senators.

In a game that gives life to the Senators, the Leafs have to close this series out on Tuesday in Scotiabank Arena. Having the Senators go back home for game 6 gives them too much momentum. Toronto needs to advance on Tuesday, and if they can’t secure the home win, we might be looking at a game 7 in Toronto on Saturday.