Thomas Chabot had two goals and an assist, Craig Anderson made 34 saves, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Saturday.
Dylan DeMelo and Chris Tierney, who were among the players acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Erik Karlsson trade, also scored for Ottawa (1-0-1). Mark Stone added an empty netter with 24.3 seconds left.
Zack Smith chipped in with two assists for the Senators, who are in the midst of a rebuild, but have looked good with their young roster through two games.
Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly each had a goal and an assist for Toronto (1-1-0) – Stanley Cup contenders that have had a wobbly start to the 2018-19.
Frederik Andersen stopped 19 shots for the Leafs, who visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Chabot, a 21-year-old defenceman starting his sophomore NHL season, snapped a 3-3 tie with his second goal of the game at 1:42 of the third period when he slid the puck through the skates of rookie Toronto blue-liner Igor Ozhiganov off the rush before beating Andersen upstairs.
Ottawa’s Anderson made a nice stop on a Connor Brown deflection with 9:24 left in regulation to keep his team ahead on just the fourth shot of the period by Toronto.
The Senators nearly went ahead by two a couple minutes later, but Andersen was there to block Smith’s shot on the doorstep after the Leafs failed to get the puck out.
Toronto made an expected late push and pulled Andersen with three minutes to go, but the Leafs couldn’t find an equalizer before Stone iced it.
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Ottawa led 1-0 after the first period, but Toronto struck back early in the second to take a 2-1 lead. Rielly got things started 29 seconds in when he took a sweet feed from Marner on the backdoor before Matthews scored his third of the season upstairs on Anderson at 1:10.
The Senators got back even at 3:49 when Chabot stepped around Tyler Ennis at the point and took advantage of some sloppy Leafs coverage to pick up his own rebound and beat a down-and-out Andersen.
Ottawa then stunned the crowd at Scotiabank Arena just 38 seconds after that when Tierney snuck behind Toronto’s defence and beat Andersen five-hole for the Senators’ third goal on just nine shots.
Andersen stopped Patrick Marleau to keep his team in front with a great pad save later in the period, but Marner raced between Ottawa defencemen Cody Ceci and Mark Borowiecki on the power play before faking the Senators goalie to the ice and sliding a shot home with 100 seconds left in the period to make it 3-3.
Toronto beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in overtime to open the NHL schedule on Wednesday — a disjointed effort that saw the Leafs hemmed in their own zone by the visitors for long stretches.
Ottawa, meanwhile, opened its schedule with a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Chicago Blackhawks at Canadian Tire Centre in a game where the Senators led 3-2 midway through the third on Thursday.
The Leafs got the better start they wanted Saturday, with Marner, Marleau and John Tavares all coming close early, but it was the Senators that took the lead at 9:42 of the first.
Chabot’s pass from the left corner in the offensive zone went off Smith’s stick to DeMelo, who beat Andersen along the ice to snap a personal 87-game goal drought that dated back to Nov. 26, 2016.
Marner had a chance to tie it with 5:47 left in the period on a penalty shot after getting slashed on a breakaway by Chris Wideman, but Anderson stared down the Toronto winger and made a right pad save.
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