OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - The Ottawa Senators were able to slow down the Toronto Maple Leafs enough to get a big win. However, the victory was spoiled by another injury to forward Bobby Ryan.
Ryan left the Senators’ 6-3 win over the Maple Leafs in the second period with a broken index finger on his right hand and will be lost to the team for at least four weeks. It’s the same finger he broke in a game against Toronto last February.
“I feel terrible for him. He was having a tremendous start to the season and he was working so hard,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said. “At least it’s not a lower-body injury … so he can continue to work his legs and on his stamina for when he’s ready to come back.”
Derick Brassard and Mark Stone each had two goals and an assist while Erik Karlsson had three assists in the win - the first at home for the Senators after starting 0-3-1.
Nate Thompson and Ryan Dzingel also scored for the Senators, who have earned points in seven of their eight games (4-1-3). Craig Anderson stopped 28 shots in his seventh start of the season.
James van Riemsdyk, Auston Matthews and William Nylander scored for the Leafs, and Frederik Andersen made 29 saves. Toronto had won its first three road games.
Trailing 3-0 entering the final period, the Leafs struck quickly with goals from van Riemsdyk and Matthews 2 1/2 minutes apart to pull within one at 8:34. However, Stone gave the Senators a two-goal cushion again 7 seven seconds later.
“You have to realize that you’re not going to get too many opportunities with the type of trap they play,’ Matthews said. “You have to have a lot of patience and capitalize on opportunities.”
Nylander scored on the power play with 7:08 left, pulling the Leafs within one again but they got no closer. Brassard scored with 3 1/2 minutes left and Stone added an empty netter with 39 seconds to go.
“I think we struggled in the neutral zone and weren’t able to do what we wanted to do with the puck,” Nylander said. “They clog up the neutral zone and the minute you turn the puck over they get it deep and get on our (defence) to create offense.”
Struggling in the third period is something the Senators had difficulty with last season, as well as last Thursday when they blew a 4-2 lead in before losing in overtime to the New Jersey Devils.
“We had the same thing last year and we worked really hard at it and we’re going to have to work really hard at it again,” Karlsson said. “I think we’re a really good third-period team but we still need some work and we realize that we have to focus on that. At the end of the day we got away with it.”
Ottawa took its 3-0 lead with one in the first and two in the second.
Thompson got his first as a Senator when he smacked in a rebound at 12:01 of the first period as Andersen had his back to the puck and his head in the net following a mass scramble in front of the goal.
Dzingel increased the lead to 2-0 when he tipped Karlsson’s point shot off the glove of Andersen and in with 5:40 remaining in the second.
The Senators kept pressing and made it a 3-0 game with just 12 seconds to play in the period when Brassard took a cross-ice pass from Bobby Ryan off his skates and then beat Andersen on the stick side.
Notes: Mark Borowiecki was a scratch for the Senators while Eric Fehr, Josh Lewo and Calle Rosen were scratches for the Leafs. … Anderson became the first goaltender to appear in 300 games with Ottawa.
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Host Los Angeles on Monday night.
Senators: Host Los Angeles on Tuesday night in the fourth game of a five-game homestand.
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