TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs gave up four goals in the second period and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.

Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens each scored twice, and Thomas Chabot also got on the board for the Senators, who improved to 29-22-8 on the season. Cozens also added an assist.

Morgan Rielly and William Nylander found the back of the net for the Maple Leafs (27-24-9), who have dropped three in a row. Their last win was Feb. 4 against the Edmonton Oilers, just before the Olympic break.

Rielly got the scoring started with his eighth of the season less than three minutes into the first period, but it was all Senators from there.

Ottawa landed the next 19 shots on net and scored three unanswered to take a two-goal lead midway through the second frame.

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Nylander responded to cut the Senators’ lead to 3-2, but Batherson struck back with his second of the period less than two minutes later on a play the Maple Leafs challenged for offside and lost.

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Cozens registered his second goal on the ensuing penalty, chasing goalie Joseph Woll after 23 saves on 28 shots. Anthony Stolarz replaced Woll and stopped all 12 shots he faced.

Linus Ullmark had 21 saves for the Senators.

The Leafs frustrations boiled over early in the third period in the form of a brawl in front of Stolarz, which resulted in 28 penalty minutes, including a 10-minute misconduct to Max Domi.

It was the Leafs first home game since captain Auston Matthews won gold with Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

TAKEAWAYS

Maple Leafs: Toronto’s slow starts continued. After scoring the first goal and recording two shots, the Leafs were outscored 1-0 and outshot 16-0 for the remainder of the first period. The two shots marked the Leafs lowest total of any period this season.

Senators: Ottawa’s win was its first against the Maple Leafs since it lost to its provincial rival in a six-game first-round playoff series last season. The teams will battle twice more this season, with both games in Ottawa.

KEY MOMENT

The Maple Leafs honoured each of their three Olympians during the first TV break. Sweden’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Nylander, who returned home without hardware, received widespread applause.

But the reception for gold medallist Matthews wasn’t as warm, as the Team USA captain was initially met with boos from the crowd before they were drowned out by cheers. American teammate Brady Tkachuk, the Senators captain, was jeered when he appeared on the big screen. The U.S. beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in the gold-medal game in Italy.

KEY STAT

Matthews extended his career-long assist streak to six games when he set up Rielly’s first-period goal. Oddly, the one-time 69-goal scorer has also now gone seven straight without a marker.

UP NEXT

Senators: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

Maple Leafs: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Brady Tkachuk’s first game back with the Ottawa Senators wasn’t an easy one.

The Senators captain returned to the nation’s capital riding the high of a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics, but his on-ice performance hasn’t been the headline.

Earlier this week, Tkachuk was one of 20 American players who visited the White House and attended the State of the Union following an invitation from President Donald Trump.

But what many Canadian and Senators fans took issue with was an AI-doctored video shared by the White House that made it appear he was disparaging Canadians.

The altered clip, shared by the White House’s TikTok account, inserted fabricated audio of Tkachuk referring to Canadians as “maple syrup eating f—s,” with the expletive bleeped in the video. The video carries a note saying it “contains AI-generated media.”

“It’s clearly fake because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said following the Senators morning skate. “I’m not in control of any of those accounts. … I know that those words would never come out of my mouth.”

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The rest of the day didn’t get any easier for Tkachuk.

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During the first TV timeout against the Detroit Red Wings the Senators showed video of all its players and staff who competed or worked at the Olympics, ending with Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson.

The display earned an equal amount of boos and cheers.

Tkachuk did earn the support of the home crowd when he opened the scoring with a power-play goal late in the first period.

The captain was once again in the middle of things midway through the second period.

Tkachuk was watching the play and when he went to turn up ice Simon Edvinsson stepped into him. Tkachuk’s own stick hit him in the face, dropping him to the ice.

Dylan Cozens jumped to his captain’s defence and both Edvinsson and Cozens were sent to the box.

“I just didn’t see him and just felt like he lowered his shoulder on me,” Tkachuk said.

Tkachuk returned to the ice before play resumed and skated to the penalty box to confront Edvinsson drawing a 10-minute misconduct.

“I didn’t know that was like an auto 10-minute,” admitted Tkachuk. “I was just expressing my frustration. I didn’t realize that would be a 10-minute.

“Definitely wouldn’t have done it that way if I knew I was gonna get a 10-minute.”

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Head coach Travis Green wasn’t a fan of how things played out.

“I don’t want him to be in the box for 10 minutes,” Green said. “You don’t see that call made very often.”

The Senators played a solid game but fell 2-1 in overtime, giving up a crucial two points to a division rival.

Ottawa (28-22-8) is now sit seven points back of the Boston Bruins for the final wild card in the Eastern Conference.

“I definitely felt that we deserved a better result,” said Tkachuk. “I thought we did a lot of great things (Thursday). Their goalie stood on his head and played a great game and just unfortunate we didn’t get the two points that we wanted.”

The Senators schedule doesn’t get any easier as they prepare for a five-game road trip. With the NHL trade deadline set for March 6, Ottawa doesn’t have much time to prove its a contender.

“We’ve got to worry about just our own destiny, our own game,” said Green. “We’re going to lose some games. We got a point out of (Thursday), probably should have got two. All you can do is play and play well.”

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press