What the Toronto Maple Leafs said after incredible playoff win
The Toronto Maple Leafs are one step closer to pushing one of their fiercest rivals to the brink.
The Leafs took a 3-0 series lead on Thursday night over the Ottawa Senators in their first-round playoff matchup, staking a serious claim to another Battle of Ontario crown.
Though the game wasn’t as much an invasion of Ottawa’s arena as is often the case when the Leafs come into town, it was still a scenario that left much of the local fanbase heading home from Kanata unsatisfied.
Taking the Senators to overtime in back-to-back games, defenceman Simon Benoit upgraded his assist on Max Domi’s overtime goal in Game 2 into one of his own, playing hero for what he called the biggest goal of his career.
SIMON BENOIT WINS IT FOR THE LEAFS!!! pic.twitter.com/s57inifTs2
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 25, 2025
Now in his second season with the Leafs, it was just the third goal that Benoit had scored for Toronto and his seventh career in the NHL after a combined 289 regular season and playoff games.
“It doesn’t matter who scores. As long as we get the win,” Benoit told Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas postgame after giving the Leafs the 3-2 win just 79 seconds into overtime. “I don’t score often, so that was pretty cool.”
The 26-year-old defenceman also picked up a few flowers from his bench boss.
“[Benoit] has played extremely well for us defensively, and being hard to play against. It’s nice when guys like that are rewarded with a big goal,” Leafs coach Craig Berube added in his post-game press conference.
With Toronto fans knowing well their inability to close out playoff series in past years — having won only one in nine first-round series since 2004 — the sense of completion remains muted for the team’s core players.
Four Leafs have been on the Leafs for nine playoff runs in a row — Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, and William Nylander — and are well aware that no series lead is safe until it’s final.
“You can’t be satisfied with where you’re at now. The next one is gonna be the hardest and we gotta be ready for that,” Marner told a series of reporters.
Toronto has a chance to close things out on Saturday night, when they take on the Senators at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre for Game 4 of the series.
The last time Toronto swept a series was actually against the Senators, though it isn’t one that any of the current players had a hand in, with it coming back all the way in 2001.
Remaining Maple Leafs Round 1 schedule
Game 4: Toronto at Ottawa, Saturday, April 26, 7 p.m. EDT
Game 5: Ottawa at Toronto, Tuesday, April 29, TBD*
Game 6: Toronto at Ottawa, Thursday, May 1, TBD*
Game 7: Ottawa at Toronto, Saturday, May 3, TBD*
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