Despite resting six players, the Ottawa Senators wrapped up their regular season with a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night to head into the post-season riding a high.
The loss ensures Toronto (32-36-14) will finish in the bottom-five allowing them to retain their first-round pick in the upcoming draft.
Toronto, which fell far short of expectations, finished the season having lost their final seven games (0-6-1).
Drake Batherson, Warren Foegele and Dylan Cozens scored for the Senators (44-27-11), while James Reimer stopped 19 shots against his former team.
“Since we found out who we’ve been playing first round, I think most of us are just thinking about that,” Batherson said. “Obviously you want to go out there and play well but it’s tough knowing this weekend you’re playing Game 1.”
Dennis Hildeby, who made 35 saves, was in goal for Toronto after he was recalled from the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies Tuesday. William Nylander scored the lone goal for Toronto.
The Leafs made it 2-1 midway through the third when Nylander backhanded a bouncing puck from the slot to beat Reimer.
$el.after( unescape("%3Cscript src=\"" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\" %3E%3C/script%3E") );
$( document ).one( 'ready', function() { $( "#video_container-170368" ).SNPlayer( { bc_account_id: "1704050871", bc_player_id: "JCdte3tMv", //autoplay: true, //is_has_autoplay_switch: false, bc_videos: 6393195477112, is_has_continuous_play: "false", section: "", thumbnail: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/6393195477112-1024x576.jpg", direct_url: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/maple-leafs-nylander-scores-to-tally-sixth-30-goal-season/" }); });
Cozens added an empty-net goal with five seconds remaining.
Toronto was outshot 12-6 in the second and Ottawa doubled its lead to make it 2-0 after 40 minutes.
The Leafs generated a couple chances but nothing Reimer couldn’t handle.
Ottawa made it 2-0 with 1:28 remaining in the period when Foegele snapped a shot from just inside the blue line that beat Hildeby low glove side.
Ottawa opened the scoring with a power-play goal early in the first when Claude Giroux threaded a pass through traffic to Batherson out front for his 33rd of the season.
With Ottawa short-handed late in the first, Nikolas Matinpalo flipped a puck high to spring Foegele in alone, but Hildeby made a great save.
“It was a good game tonight,” Senators head coach Travis Green said. “A bit of a strange game at this time of year considering we’ve been playing so many games that meant so much but I liked the way our team played for the whole game.”
Takeaways
Senators: Despite missing numerous regulars the Senators dominated at both ends of the ice.
Leafs: The Leafs looked like a team playing through the motions after a disappointing season.
Key Stat
With a power-play goal in the first Ottawa owns a power-play percentage of 23.8 for 2025-26 which ties their highest in a season in team history, also 23.8 in 2024-25.
Up Next
Maple Leafs: Nothing until training camp.
Senators: Open the playoffs on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes. Date TBD.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·