By Canadian Press

Engvall scores twice as Maple Leafs top Senators 2-1 in pre-season game

Oct 4, 2021 | 9:37 PM

OTTAWA — Coaches don’t put much stock in the pre-season, but Ottawa Senators coach D.J. Smith wasn’t thrilled with his team as they lost 3-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.

Michael Amadio put away the winner with 1:25 remaining in regulation, while Pierre Engvall scored twice, including an empty netter, for the Leafs (3-1-0). Jack Campbell turned away 26 shots.

Connor Brown had the lone goal for the Senators, now 2-2-0 in the pre-season. Matt Murray, playing his second complete game, was solid stopping 24 shots.

Toronto had shut out the Senators 4-0 less than a week ago, when the teams met for the first time, and will close out the pre-season against one another Saturday night.

“Give them credit, they have guys that are on their last leg trying to make the National Hockey League and they’re playing that game,” said Smith. “Some of those guys it’s a playoff game for them, it’s do or die…and they deserve to win.”

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Smith admitted his team didn’t play very well, with the Maple Leafs dominating Ottawa in the opening period.

“I think what happens is you don’t see Matthews, you don’t see Marner, Tavares, so you think you’re going to just go out there and the game is going to come to you,” Smith said. “What happens is the first ten, 12 minutes we don’t have any shots, we don’t have any zone time and the other team starts to build some confidence and they just stuck with it and grinded one out.”

Another area of concern for Smith was the Senators’ power play. After five pre-season games Ottawa is 1 for 20 with the man advantage.

“The result is one thing if you had all the chances, but we didn’t have any chances,” said Smith. “We had like one or two so the power play was a major issue (Monday).”

Tim Stutzle, who did have a couple chances on the power play, knows the team needs to be better.

“Obviously if you don’t score a goal it’s not good,” said Stutzle. “We had a lot of chances on the power play and they had some penalties and in the end I had like two Grade A chances and just can’t score.”

Ottawa lost centre Colin White early in the period with what appeared to be a right shoulder injury forcing Smith to juggle lines.

Smith said White is scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday, but anticipates he will be out for a while, which opens the door for Andrew Agozzino.

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press