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Kubina lifts Maple Leafs past Senators

Mar 1, 2009 - 4:11 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Defenseman Pavel Kubina tied the score late in the third period and netted the winner 33 seconds into overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs posted their fourth straight victory with a 4-3 triumph over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday in the "Battle of Ontario".

Jamal Mayers scored and rookie Tim Stapleton netted his first career goal for Toronto, which played in its sixth straight overtime contest.

"We have kind of found our groove right now," Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. "We have been playing pretty well, although we can't seem to finish teams off when we have the opportunity.

"The first period was as good a period as we have played all season long. The fact that we have won in overtime, four in a row now, guys are feeling good about themselves."

Curtis Joseph turned aside 29 shots to post victories in 19 different calendar years.

Captain Daniel Alfredsson, Ryan Shannon and Jarkko Ruutu also tallied and rookie Brian Elliott finished with 34 saves for Ottawa, which is 1-3-2 in its last six contests.

"Games like this are going to happen," Alfredsson said. "We had a good chance up 3-2, but you can't let them hang in there. Until they scored on the power play, I felt we played a good game up to that point."

With his team trailing 3-2 with 5:12 remaining in the third period, Kubina leveled the contest after his slap shot beat Elliott to level the contest.

In overtime, Kubina capped the comeback by wristing a shot that sailed under the arm of the netminder for his 14th goal of the season.

"I got a good pass from (Nik) Antropov and I had so much time for a shot, so I just shot it and it went through," Kubina said. "It was a great pass from (Ian) White and we had a 3-on-1 and I just tried to raise it on the blocker side. Sometimes you get lucky."

"Obviously, I'm disappointed because we lost in overtime," Elliott said. "You want to save every shot, so you can go over it in your mind and tear yourself up about it - or just work in practice to get better every day. It's a good play when you shoot through a defenseman's screen, but still obviously you want to stop that one."

After Mayers opened the scoring 6:39 into the first period, Stapleton doubled the advantage nearly nine minutes later.

Playing in his second career game, Stapleton alertly tapped a loose puck past Elliott for his first goal.

In his first career game on Thursday, Stapleton netted the game-winning tally in the shootout as the Maple Leafs toppled the New York Islanders.

"The first period was brutal," Ottawa's Mike Fisher said. "We didn't come out strong at all. We didn't look like a team at all, but then in the second period, we looked really good. It was disappointing to lose it. ... It was tough to lose that one."

Shannon cut the deficit in half just 29 seconds into the second period and Ruutu evened the contest just over four minutes later after backhanding a rebound past Joseph.

"Most of the game we were leading until the third," Antropov said. "But we showed character, like we have over our last six games, and we were able turn it around."