Score four unanswered goals, Tkachuk finishes with three points
via NHL.com
Brady Tkachuk had a goal and two assists to help the Ottawa Senators open their season with a 5-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Canadian Tire Centre on Friday.
“That was an amazing feeling,” Tkachuk said. “I missed those winning ways, and that’s what we’re going to preach here. We want to win games, we want to be a playoff team, so hopefully we can keep going, keep learning from the mistakes we made tonight.”
Matt Murray made 20 saves, and Austin Watson and Derek Stepan scored for the Senators. Each was making his Ottawa debut.
“You can see why he’s an elite goalie in the League,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said of Murray, who won the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016, 2017). “He doesn’t panic; he just reads the play. He got scored on and just [went] back to work.”
Senators forward Tim Stutzle, the No. 3 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, had one shot and played 11:50 in his NHL debut on his 19th birthday.
John Tavares had a goal and an assist, and Frederik Andersen made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs, who won their opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
“We knew they were going to be content to just stay on the inside and make it difficult for us,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We’re trying to speed our game up offensively and challenge the net a lot more. And we just haven’t done that yet.”
HBD Mikko! 🎂 pic.twitter.com/Xk4QT0Fth2
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 16, 2021