The final game of the rookie tournament takes place this Sunday evening between the Senators and the Leafs.

The Leafs lines for tonight are:

Forwards

Grundstrom – Marchment – Timashov

Moore – Dupuy – Bracco

Dzierkals – Bobylev – Piccinich

Pospisil – McGregor – Coskey

Defense

Dermott – Liljegren

Nielsen – Rasanen

Gordeev – Mattinen

Duquette

Goalies

Scott

Kaskisuo

1st period

The Leafs got off to a hot start. In the first major offensive opportunity of the game, Fedor Gordeev rushes down the wing and feeds a soft, but well-placed pass on the stick of Martins Dzierkals. He shoots and it’s stopped, but he finds his own rebound at a tough angle, and beats the Sens goalie to make it 1-0.

Not long after, the 4th line is creating havoc in front of the net, and Ryan McGregor is able to find the puck and make it 2-0.

Again not too much later, the Leafs are charged with a minor penalty and the Senators go to the powerplay, but the 2 minute advantage is fruitless for them.

The Leafs were granted the next powerplay advantage and they were able to make the most of it on a sweet passing play. Liljegren drives the wing and finds Marchment behind the net, who finds Trevor Moore in front who finishes. 3-0 Leafs.

Near the end of the period, the Leafs pick up another powerplay advantage on a puck-over-glass penalty. The period ends though with them not scoring, having 54 seconds left in the penalty for the following period.

2nd period

The penalty carried over from the previous period finishes without the Leafs scoring.

Ottawa gets the next powerplay 4 minutes into the period but again are unable to score, but did test Ian Scott with a couple good chances.

Just after that penalty expires, they get another powerplay opportunity. Again they do not score, despite building on the momentum from the previous chance.

Both teams swapped their goalies, with Kaskisuo coming in for the Leafs.

Not much else would happen in the 2nd, and it ends the same as the first did, 3-0 for the Maple Leafs.

3rd period

The third period started with the Leafs taking a penalty, but this was quickly nullified by the Senators taking their own penalty 4 seconds into the powerplay advantage.

Through 4-on-4 play, there were some good chances, but nothing materialized for either team.

The Senators did finally get on the board with a tipped shot in front beating Kaskisuo, making the game 3-1.

We saw another round of 4-on-4 action with 5 minutes left in the 3rd, after Ottawa took a penalty on their powerplay. The Senators were able to break out and create a 2-on-1 chance that they finished, making the game 3-2 for the Leafs.

With just over a minute left in the 3rd period, Filip Chlapik is able to bury a loose puck thrown in front of the net to tie the game.

The period ends tied, and this one is going to overtime.

Overtime

The 3-on-3 overtime period started off pretty evenly with both teams getting a little bit of zone time, with nothing to take advantage of.

With a little over a minute left in OT, a great breakaway chance for the Sens was very close to going in, but Kaskisuo was able to stretch the leg and keep the deked chance out of the net.

The period ends tied, and we’re off to a shootout.

Shootout

Leafs Shooter Scored? Sens Shooter Scored? Timashov Nope. Batherson NOPE Bracco Nope. Chlapik NOPE Moore Nope. Brown NOPE Liljegren Nope. Gagne NOPE Grundstrom Nope. Sutter NOPE Nielsen Nope. Lajoie Yep.

Closing Thoughts

A game the Leafs probably should have won, but were unable to hold on to. I don’t think you can blame it on Kaskisuo, despite all 3 goals coming against him. Moreso it was the Leafs defense allowing outnumbered opportunities for the Senators causing the goals against.

My three stars for the night:

Chlapik Batherson Liljegren

This concludes this year’s rookie tournament, with the Senators as tournament champions. Thankfully that means absolutely nothing, so we can still be excited about what the future holds for these young players.





