Mogilny's goal sends Leafs to Game 7 showdown vs. Senators

OTTAWA -- Alexander Mogilny saw it coming.

A day after saying he had an inkling he'd score a big goal, Mogilny provided the game-winner in Sunday's 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators, forcing a decisive Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Game 7 is Tuesday night in Toronto. It will be the second seventh game for the Maple Leafs, who outlasted the New York Islanders in the first round.

It was a remarkable performance for a banged-up and weary Maple Leafs team. Toronto is not only missing six regulars, including captain Mats Sundin (broken wrist), but also hasn't had more than one day off between games in over three weeks.

"Nobody believed in us, but here we are on the road, shorthanded again, and we found a way to get the job done," Mogilny said.

As for the team's mindset, he added with a smile: "Well, we said we're going back (to Toronto) anyway. We might as well bring those guys with us."

Gary Roberts continued his prolific postseason production, with two goals and an assist and Bryan McCabe also scored for Toronto.

Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson and Todd White scored for the Senators, who squandered a 2-0 lead.

Mogilny ended a five-game goal drought a day after he told reporters, "I've got a feeling it's coming. I've just got a feeling that something good will happen soon."

It did.

From deep in the Ottawa end, Radek Bonk's pass through the middle hit off of teammate Martin Havlat's skate. Toronto's Travis Green got to the loose puck, and slipped a pass to Mogilny, who was alone behind the defenders.

Turning toward the net, Mogilny snapped a shot that beat goaltender Patrick Lalime on the stick side to break a 3-3 tie 4:28 into the third period.

Asked if he had another good feeling heading into Tuesday, Mogilny laughed and said: "We'll find out tomorrow. I'll look in my crystal ball."

As elating as the win was for the Maple Leafs, the Senators tried to maintain their composure.

"We've been able to regroup after every game. And we're going to do the same thing on Tuesday," Alfredsson said. "Sometimes you get bad breaks. You can't control everything. We knew it was going to be a battle all along."

Bonk responded testily to a question of whether the loss was demoralizing.

"What kind of question is that, 'Trying to suck the life out of this team,"' Bonk said. "You trying to bring us down? That's a bad question."

The Senators are 2-1 in Toronto in the series, but Ottawa has never advanced past the second round in its 10-year history, and has been eliminated by Toronto in the past two playoffs.

The Senators were coming off a disputed Game 5 victory in which Alfredsson had scored the winning goal seconds before he hit Toronto's Darcy Tucker from behind, sending him crashing into the boards.

The Maple Leafs complained that Alfredsson should have been penalized, particularly because the check broke a bone in Tucker's shoulder and dislocated his left shoulder.

Curiously, a boarding penalty against Ottawa's Ricard Persson changed the complexion of Sunday's game.

The Maple Leafs had been thoroughly outplayed -- outscored 2-0 and outshot 8-1 -- through the first 12 minutes when Persson hit Tie Domi from behind, sending the Toronto forward face-first into the boards.

With Domi cut over the left eye, Persson was issued a five-minute major penalty and ejected from the game.

The Maple Leafs capitalized, with McCabe and Roberts scoring power-play goals 4:19 apart to tie the game.

Roberts then put the Leafs up 13:09 into the second period, before White tied it on a great individual effort in the waning seconds of the period.

Roberts is enjoying a great postseason. He leads Toronto with seven goals and 16 points, and has scored or assisted on nine of the team's 13 goals against Ottawa.

"I think the biggest thing is that we haven't quit," said Toronto's Shayne Corson. "We just keep coming."

The Senators have now squandered leads in each of their last three games.

It didn't help that they were missing hulking defenseman Zdeno Chara, who sprained his left knee late in Game 5. The Senators were then down to five defenseman when Persson was ejected.

Notes:

Toronto's two power-play goals were one fewer than the Senators allowed in their 10 previous games this postseason. . . . Tucker was booed when his name was announced among the scratches, while Alfredsson was cheered when introduced as a starter. . . . Jeff Farkas replaced Tucker in the lineup.