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Nip and Tucker Leafs win first round in Battle of Ontario
Posted: Monday May 01, 2000 08:34 PM By Bruce Garrioch, SLAM! Sports TORONTO -- Round 1 of The Battle of Ontario had just ended and like any good fighter, the Senators put up a brave face.
The Senators did have their chances in a 2-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opener of the Eastern Conference quarter-final at the Air Canada Centre. Problem was, they couldn't capitalize. Instead of returning for Game 2 Saturday with a 1-0 lead in the series, the Senators will spend the next two days in practice trying to correct their mistakes as they look for their first playoff win since May 11, 1998 (seven straight losses). "It's only one game," said Ottawa defenceman Jason York. "I don't think we have anything to be worried about. It takes four games to win a series and there's still a lot of hockey left to be played here. "I thought there were a lot of positive things that happened tonight that we can take from this game and build on. You've got to give Curtis Joseph some credit. We played pretty well and he made some big saves for them." Joseph stoned Vaclav Prospal, Daniel Alfredsson, Radek Bonk and Juneau. But the Toronto goalie also got lucky when Hossa missed a chance to put the puck into a wide-open net to tie it up early in the third period. After getting around Leafs' defenceman Danny Markov and going around Joseph, the puck slid off Hossa's stick. "It just slipped away from my stick," said Hossa. With it went the Senators' hopes of tying the game. If that wasn't enough, Hossa also gave away the puck in the final minute, allowing Mats Sundin to salt it away with an empty-net goal. Before the series started, the Senators had talked about creating traffic in front of Joseph and jumping on the rebounds. They didn't do that often enough. They also suffered an uncharacteristic lack of discipline. A bad penalty by Vaclav Prospal in the second resulted in the winner by Darcy Tucker at 8:53. In the first period, Bonk drew a double-minor for hooking Nik Antropov and then roughing up Tucker. It was a clear sign the Senators might have come out of the gates too charged up. "The way I look it we came out a little hot," said Alfredsson. "We wanted to win that game and we were just a little too excited about it. We settled down quite a bit after the first period. "We created a lot of offensive chances. We could have been better on the [two power plays] we did have, but we've just got to be patient when we get our opportunities." The Leafs did suffer a major blow last night, losing winger Yanic Perreault for the season with a right knee injury after he got tangled up with York early in the third period. Perreault had been a thorn in the Senators' side all season, with three goals and three assists. "I don't even remember hitting him," said York, who was accused of giving Perreault a dirty hit by Toronto coach Pat Quinn. "If I hurt him, I didn't meant to do it." Goalie Tom Barrasso, who faced 21 shots while the Sens had 30 at Joseph, made it clear the Senators have to play better. "We lost and that is not acceptable," he said. It's only one game, but it's the third straight time the Senators have lost a series opener. None of those series ended on a happy note.
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