‘Fun stuff starts now’: Maple Leafs turn attention to Senators in Battle of Ontario playoff series

Craig Berube wanted to finish Thursday night healthy.

That mission accomplished, the Maple Leafs and their head coach can now solely focus on what the group has been working toward all season — the Stanley Cup playoffs.

A mouth-watering first-round matchup awaits.

Toronto came back from a 3-1 deficit in Thursday’s third period before beating the visiting Detroit Red Wings 4-3 to put a bow on a meaningless regular-season finale for both teams.

“Hard for the players,” Berube said. “It’s just one of those [games] you hope you come out of it and you’re all good.”

That’s what happened as Toronto avoided injury on a night that looked a lot like a pre-season contest against an opponent that will watch the NHL’s annual spring tournament from the couch.

“A little bit of a weird game,” said Leafs forward Scott Laughton, who scored the winner. “It’s different out there. You probably won’t see me out there second shift of overtime, so that kind of explains it.”

Toronto, which topped the Atlantic Division with 108 points, opens the post-season Sunday night against the Ottawa Senators in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series that represents the first playoff Battle of Ontario in more than two decades.

“Now it’s time for us to get down to business,” Leafs defenceman Chris Tanev said after tying Thursday’s affair with 1.8 seconds left in regulation. “We know how good of a team they are, we know how hard they play, we know how well-coached they are.

“They’re a very structured team that does all the right things, does the little things to win games, and that’s why they’ve had a successful year.”

The Leafs beat the Senators four times in the playoffs between 2000 and 2004, including two Game 7 victories on home ice. The rivalry has been largely dormant since with the teams trading rebuilds, but Ottawa has finally emerged from the doldrums to set the stage for another provincial clash.

“Proud of the way we battled back and found our game there in the third period,” said Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who opened the scoring with his 33rd goal of 2024-25. “You want to be ending off the regular season on a good note. A lot of good things heading into the post-season.

“Just got to get prepared and ready for what’s next.”

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Toronto has won five straight games heading into the playoffs, and were victorious in 13 of the team’s final 16 games to claim the division crown.

“We really played well as a team this last little stretch,” Berube said. “Doing the right things without the puck. Everybody dialed in and bought into what we want to do.”

The Leafs, whose Cup drought stretches back to 1967, will be looking to win a series for just the second time in the NHL’s salary-cap era when they hit the playoff ice.

Tkachuk says he’ll be ready for Game 1

Brady Tkachuk says he’s ready to go.

After missing the Senators’ last eight games with an upper-body injury, the Ottawa captain returned to the lineup for Thursday’s regular-season finale against Carolina but didn’t finish the night.

Tkachuk sat out the third period of the Senators’ 7-5 victory after taking a stick to the face. He said it was a precautionary move and he’d be good to go for Sunday’s playoff opener in Toronto.

“Yeah, no issues,” Tkachuk said.

The Senators (45-30-7), who are making their first post-season appearance in eight years, finished in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Tkachuk hadn’t played since March 30 and wanted to get a game in to “get some touches.”

“I haven’t played in two and a half weeks,” he said. “So just get the timing and I mean it’s not that much time at the end. But [I] just wanted to get some reps, power-play reps, and I think we accomplished that.”

Tkachuk said he felt good but he and the team “wanted to be smart about it.”

He did admit that it took a couple of shifts to find his rhythm but he felt better as the game went on.

Tkachuk leads the team with 29 goals and ranks fourth with 55 points. Ottawa was 5-2-1 without its captain in the lineup down the stretch.

“He always gives you 100 per cent and we’ve seen it at the 4 Nations [Face-Off],” said teammate Tim Stutzle. “He played an unbelievable tournament and really meaningful games for [the U.S.].

He’s going to be a big factor for us again and he has been all year, even through some tough stretches, he’s come out and played really hard.”

The Ottawa-Toronto series will be the playoff debut for the 25-year-old Tkachuk.

“It was seven long years,” he said of the post-season wait. “But you know, it feels good getting into it.”