LEAFS NOTES: Toronto stalls on the one-yard line trying to clinch series sweep (2025)

The clinch was once again just out of the Maple Leafs’ clutches.

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While not the same story as previous years, when Games 6 and 7 kept eluding them, the chance to sweep the Ottawa Senators got the brush-off Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre. With the 4-3 overtime loss, in which they struggled at the start, played catch-up much of the match and didn’t get it done with a four-minute extra-period power play, the Leafs fell to 1-12 in clinching scenarios since 2018.

Just as it’s rare for the Leafs to be up 3-0 in a series, so too is it for them to lose Game 4 in that situation. The previous time it happened before Saturday was 1963, when the Montreal Canadiens staved off elimination in the semifinal with a 3-1 rally at the Forum. Toronto closed them out 5-0 two nights later at the Gardens.

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The same result unfolded in 1948 in eventually dispatching Boston, while in 1945, Detroit nearly fought out of an 0-3 hole before Toronto finally subdued the Wings in a 2-1 Game 7 Cup victory.

The 1942 Leafs are the only team to come all the way back in a best-of-seven championship series, though it’s happened three other times since in earlier playoff rounds to the 2014 Los Angeles Kings, 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and 1975 New York Islanders.

Ottawa’s Claude Giroux was part of the Flyers team that took out Boston and you can bet the younger Senators are now very attentive to his war stories of that spring.

CANADA DRY

The situation for Canadian teams trying to end a 32-year Cup absence looked a little better after Friday with Montreal and Edmonton both winning to get back into their respective series. If Winnipeg can take a 3-1 lead on St. Louis Sunday, at least two clubs are in great shape to go on to the second round.

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A Canadian team has been to the final only seven times since the Habs defeated the Los Angeles Kings in 1993, though Edmonton gave it a hell of a shot in stretching Florida to seven games last year.

This year’s Oilers were down 2-0 to the Kings before winning Game 3 on home ice. They’re getting healthier, too, with winger Zach Hyman hurt before returning for the playoffs, defenceman John Klingberg missing 10 games and forward Evander Kane out all year until Game 2, picking up two points in Game 3.

“You get back to Edmonton, there’s some buzz in the city,” Kane told nhl.com. “I think we kind of got re-energized a little bit. I thought the first two games, we were still in regular-season mode.”

LOOSE LEAFS

Watching the Game 2 warmup at Scotiabank Arena, Nick Cousins shot a puck through Anthony Stolarz’s pads while the Toronto goalie stretched, but he wasn’t fined $25,000 by the league and it was put down to two former Florida teammates having a little fun … Heading back to Scotiabank Arena, the previous time Toronto won a series on home ice was 2004, Game 7 against Ottawa … Leafs great Dave Keon, a member of their Cup-winning team in 1967, made a rare trip back from Florida to the SportExpo this weekend. Among the items he signed was a grey seat from Maple Leaf Gardens. The original seat number was 14.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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