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Tucker's overtime goal helps Maple Leafs edge Senators

Mar 11, 2007 - 6:25 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- With the playoffs on the horizon, the Toronto Maple Leafs looked to Darcy Tucker to lead the way.

Tucker scored two goals, including the game-winner at 3:11 of overtime as the Maple Leafs rallied to post a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

With Toronto trailing, 3-1, after two periods, Boyd Devereaux drew the Maple Leafs closer at 9:09 of the third before Nik Antropov tallied with 4:02 remaining to forge a tie.

In the extra session, Tucker took a pass from Matt Stajan at center ice, then received a return feed from defenseman Pavel Kubina before blasting a shot from the right faceoff circle past goaltender Ray Emery for his second of the game.

"We earned it, we played a good hockey game," Tucker said. "I'm the first one to tell you when we didn't, but we deserved to get the win."

The victory pulled the Maple Leafs (33-27-9) even in points with the idle Carolina Hurricanes (34-28-7) for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

"The win was big," Toronto coach Paul Maurice said. "It was just huge because of the timing of it."

Captain Daniel Alfredsson opened the scoring in the first period, and Mike Fisher and Dany Heatley tallied around Tucker's power-play goal in the second to stake Ottawa to its 3-1 lead.

"We didn't play great," Alfredsson said. "We took a lot of penalties in the second and it cost us the momentum. We were kind of lucky to be up 3-1. They played a good game tonight."

The power-play goal by Tucker was Toronto's first in 22 opportunities.

"We hit, we moved the puck, we did a lot of things we wanted to do," Tucker said. "Tonight was a big game for us."

Andrew Raycroft stopped 19 shots for the Maple Leafs, who avenged Thursday's loss here to the Senators and concluded the season series with a 3-4-1 mark.

"Tonight was by far the most fun I've had here and definitely the most fun we've had in this building," Raycroft said. "It's exciting to come back and get the win."

Defenseman Wade Redden and Jason Spezza each had two assists and Emery made 41 saves for the Senators (39-23-7), who are just one point ahead of Pittsburgh (37-21-10) for fourth place in the East.

"It's a disappointing loss," Emery said. "Especially going into the third up 3-1, there is no excuse not to get two points."