Sorry, WHO was the overtime hero in Game 3 against the Ottawa Senators?

48 hours after jumping into the rush and setting up Max Domi’s overtime goal for a Toronto Maple Leafs win in Game 2, Simon Benoit did what he frequently jokes that he can’t do. He ripped a shot from the point to score in overtime and secured a 3-2 win over the Senators, setting up a series sweep opportunity in Game 4 on Saturday.

Benoit’s play in recent weeks has been somewhat of a revelation. He’s always had a good sense of the defensive zone and the physicality speaks for itself, but that came with a tendency to take careless penalties and make some questionable decisions with the puck. It seems as though down the stretch of the season, he’s gained some confidence from head coach Craig Berube’s trust in him, continuing to use him on the bottom pair despite Philippe Myers being a right-handed option to Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s left-handedness.

What we saw tonight was a perfect example of the Leafs giving their goaltender some backup after he arguably saved parts of Games 1 and 2 for them. The game-tying goal from Brady Tkachuk was clean shot from the slot that Anthony Stolarz probably wants back, but the Leafs didn’t let Ottawa’s momentum boost consume them. They kept the play steady at 5-on-5, limited the Senators of many high-danger chances, and it only took a minute and change in overtime for them to ice the game.

Auston Matthews was arguably their best forward and finally had his moment in the series, scoring the go-ahead goal 32 seconds into the third period and winning the draw back to Benoit to set up the overtime winner. He commented in the morning before the game on the Leafs’ need to be prepared for pushback from Ottawa at any given moment.

We know they’re gonna be ready to go,” Matthews said. “They’ll want to have a response, so we just have to be ready.”

The Leafs will now head into a series sweep scenario on Saturday for Game 4, a situation the team has never been in during the Matthews era. They’ll be treating each game like it’s their last, as they’ve been doing already, and will look to use the momentum from another big overtime win to get the job done.