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TORONTO (AP) – A year ago, Toronto's Yanic Perreault was knocked
out of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Ottawa Senators. This time
he returned the favor.
Perreault scored two goals Wednesday night as the Maple Leafs
beat the Senators 3-1 at Air Canada Centre to complete a surprising
four-game sweep of their first-round series.
|  | | Sens goalie Patrick Lalime falls to the ice after stopping Mats Sundin's shot in the first period. Lalime shut out Sundin, but not the Leafs. |
For Perreault, who injured a knee in last spring's series
against the Senators and was lost for the playoffs, motivation was
easy on this night.
"We didn't want to go back to Ottawa, for sure," said
Perreault, who scored both of his goals in the first period to
rally the Leafs from a 1-0 deficit. "We wanted to get it over with
tonight. I thought the first 10 minutes we didn't get our legs
going as much as we wanted, but after that we played well."
This was supposed to be Ottawa's time to shine. The Senators,
who lost in six games to the Leafs last year, went 5-0 against
Toronto in the regular season and with 109 points finished far
ahead in the standings. And their die-hard fans were desperate for
the team to excel in the playoffs.
Instead, they were outhustled and outplayed almost at every turn
in every game and lost their fourth straight playoff series,
scoring just three times. It was a mark of offensive futility
exceeded only twice in playoff history. The Boston Bruins scored
only two goals in a four-game series in 1935 against Toronto, and
the Montreal Canadiens duplicated the dubious feat in 1952 against
Detroit.
"We didn't follow our game plan, and once we lost the first
game (1-0) in overtime, we couldn't really find ourselves,"
Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "It was just a matter of
us not getting the offense going."
Ottawa, which scored its first two goals of the series against
Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph in the final 3:09 of regulation in
Game 3, got off to a promising start Wednesday.
Joseph was beaten by defenseman Chris Phillips on the Senators'
first shot on goal. The shot from the slot by Phillips, playing his
first game of the series because of a nagging shoulder injury,
deflected off Toronto forward Tie Domi and caromed off the left
goal post past Joseph at 2:30.
It was Ottawa's only lead of the series, and it was short-lived.
Perreault scored his first goal on a power play at 8:56 and gave
the Leafs the lead for good with the first period winding down.
Thirty seconds after Joseph made a brilliant save on Rob Zamuner
from in close, Sergei Berezin set up Perreault in front. His rising
shot beat Patrick Lalime with 1:53 remaining.
"They got a couple of chances, but not because we weren't
working hard or weren't playing our system," Phillips said. "We
had breakdowns and they capitalized on them. That was the
difference."
A late goal in a period in the playoffs is usually deflating,
but the Senators showed rare spunk to start the second. Joseph, who
finished with 21 saves, was forced to make a couple of big stops
less than five minutes in during a scrum in front.
But the Leafs settled down, and when Bryan McCabe scored midway
through the period, the Senators – who failed to score on all 16
power-play chances they had in the series – were all but finished.
"They either outplayed us or we beat ourselves," said Lalime,
who had 20 saves. "We set a goal the whole series that we were
going to come back and come back. It never happened. Everybody had
expectations and we were the first to expect a lot in the playoffs.
"To be shut down like that, there's not much to say. It's
tough, especially for the talented guys who can score goals on
their own."
The most talented was Alexei Yashin, Ottawa's top scorer with 40
goals during the season. He was criticized by fans and the media
for his lackluster play in the series, and this game was no
different.
The Russian, stymied by the line of Shayne Corson, Igor Korolev
and Jonas Hoglund, got into a shoving match with Toronto defenseman
Dimitri Yushkevich shortly after McCabe's goal. Yashin finished the
series with just one assist and had only one shot Wednesday.
Game notes
Toronto had only swept a seven-game playoff series twice
before, beating Detroit in 1948 and 1949. ... D Cory Cross scored in overtime of Game 3 for Toronto, almost 50 years to the day that
Maple Leafs D Bill Barilko scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in
overtime against Montreal in 1951. Barilko was killed in a plane
crash four months later. ... Ottawa outshot Toronto 123-99 in the
series. ... Toronto is 5-0 against Ottawa in the playoffs at Air
Canada Centre. ... Ottawa is 3-14 on the road in five playoff
series since 1997.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Ottawa Clubhouse
Toronto Clubhouse
Maple Leafs-Senators Series Page
RECAPS
Washington 4
Pittsburgh 3
Toronto 3
Ottawa 1
Carolina 3
New Jersey 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The Leafs' Yanic Perreault scores on the power-play for his first of two goals.
avi: 925 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Mats Sundin takes the puck in and sets up Bryan McCabe for a Maple Leafs' goal.
avi: 1210 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
The Senators' Chris Phillips beats Curtis Joseph with a long-distance wrist shot.
avi: 1120 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Sergei Berezin centers to Yanic Perreault for his second goal of the period.
avi: 990 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Gary Roberts discusses the Maple Leafs' first-round sweep of the Ottawa Senators.
wav: 947 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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