Heatley, Senators sting Maple Leafs in OT

Last Updated: Thursday, October 4, 2007 | 12:27 AM ET

CBC Sports

A bold move by Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Paul Maurice backfired in Wednesday's season opener versus the Ottawa Senators.

Dany Heatley, who agreed to a six-year, $45-million US contract extension prior to the game, scored 2:57 into overtime as the visiting Senators rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Maple Leafs before a spillover crowd of 19,496 at the Air Canada Centre.

Dany Heatley, right, celebrates his overtime winner on Wednesday.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Heatley played give-and-go with Mike Fisher, taking the return pass in front of two defenders and wristing a screen shot past Andrew Raycroft for the decisive goal.

"I didn't see anything on that last goal," he said. "Fisher made a great play through traffic and I just tried to get it away as fast as I could and find a hole."

"I just threw it [the puck] to him and, somehow, he corralled it, and got it away really quickly, with a couple guys on him," Fisher recalled.

Heatley had two goals and one assist in the contest, giving him 22 goals and 41 points in 25 career games against Toronto.

"It was nice, it was nice," Heatley said. "I had a couple of shots early and didn't get the shots through."

"That is what goal scorers are," Senators head coach John Paddock explained. "You saw Brett Hull many nights, you don't think he has got anything and, all of sudden, he gets two chances and he scores.

"That's Heater. They were both goal scorer's goals."

Antoine Vermette and Daniel Alfredsson had the other goals in support of Martin Gerber, who posted 26 saves for the Senators.

"We have to play better than we did in some aspects of the game," Paddock said. "But we found a way to win, which this group has got used to doing, and I'm glad they did it tonight."

Vesa Toskala, touted as Toronto's No. 1 goaltender, watched from the bench as Raycroft opened the season for the Maple Leafs.

Toskala, obtained June 22 from the San Jose Sharks and inked to a two-year, $8-million US contract extension, was terrible in the pre-season, so Maurice gambled by going with Raycroft — the man he was expected to supplant as No. 1 — on opening night.

"Clearly, he was not loved early," Maurice said, referring to the crowd jeering Raycroft.
 
"But I think he did a really good job settling into the game. After that, I thought he was very good."

Raycroft finished with 26 saves, including a left pad stop on Chris Kelly on a breakaway six minutes into the second period.

"I thought the first two [Ottawa goals] were tough," Maurice said. "They were good shots."
 
Nik Antropov scored two goals for the Maple Leafs, both assisted by Mats Sundin, and Matt Stajan tallied on a rising slapshot with 4:16 left in the second period.

"That one guy, No. 80 [Antropov], he's not bad," Maurice said. "We'll keep him."

"I saw a lot of great signs from our team," Sundin said. "I think we're way ahead of where we were at the start of last year.

"It's early, it's one game. But we played, supposedly, one of the top teams in our conference, and I thought we played a darn pretty good game."

The provincial rivalry resumes Thursday at Scotiabank Place (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).

Vermette finds net 

Ottawa opened the scoring on a splendid rush from Vermette, who lugged the puck over centre ice and burst by defenceman Tomas Kaberle before beating Raycroft with a low wrist shot 7:23 into the first period.

Antropov was credited with tying it 1-1, when he banked a centring pass off the skate of defenceman Chris Phillips and behind Gerber at the 10:39 mark.

Jason Blake notched an assist, his first point in a Maple Leafs sweater.

"We did some good things out there," Blake said. "But there is room for improvement."

Antropov put Toronto ahead 2:20 later, as he corralled Sundin's centring pass in the slot and snapped a shot between Gerber's pads for his second goal of the period.

Forty seconds later, Heatley slid a pass to Alfredsson, who fooled Raycroft with a low shot from the high slot for his first.

It remained deadlocked until Stajan settled a bouncing puck and blasted a slapshot off the left goalpost and behind Gerber to make it 3-2 at 15:44 of the second period.

However, Heatley gathered a flip from Andrej Meszaros and fired a shot by Raycroft to even proceedings with 5:36 remaining in regulation.

"We finally picked up in the third," Paddock said. "We were pretty lackadaisical in the second."

With files from the Canadian Press