Maple Leafs 6, Senators 5
Phil Kessel's third career hat trick lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs to a wild 6-5 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Toronto led 5-1 midway through the third period before the Senators stormed back to make a game of it. With Ottawa shorthanded, Daniel Alfredsson burst out of the penalty box on a short breakaway and beat James Reimer to trim the deficit to three.
Jason Spezza jammed in a loose puck at 15:36 to make it 5-3, and Alfredsson redirected an Erik Karlsson shot past Reimer eight seconds later to send shockwaves through the Air Canada Centre.
Kessel restored the two-goal edge with a wrister past Alex Auld's blocker arm, completing his first hat trick as a member of the Maple Leafs.
Rookie Stephane Da Costa's first career NHL goal - and the seventh of the period between the teams - closed the gap to 6-5 with 1:54 remaining, but the Senators couldn't draw even as they lost for the second straight night.
Nikolai Kulemin, Joffrey Lupul and Colton Orr had the other goals for the Maple Leafs. Orr's was his first in 39 games.
Colin Greening scored the first goal for Ottawa early in the third period, ending Reimer's season-opening shutout streak at 101 minutes, 41 seconds.