OTTAWA – Colin Greening felt a little conflicted in what should have been a moment for celebration.
Greening batted a puck out of midair for a goal with 24 seconds remaining to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
The goal is a career-highlight for Greening, who just a week ago was a healthy scratch against the Leafs, but scoring on a good friend is tough.
Greening and Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens were teammates and roommates at Cornell University.
"Being able to score on Ben is one of those weird situations," Greening said. "You always want him to do well, but not too well, but you've got to do what you've got to do.
"He played well over there and deserves a lot of accolades for his play of late."
Scrivens was clearly aggravated by the result and struggled to offer Greening any accolades.
"It's frustrating, he's a good player, but you want to play a few of those better," Scrivens said. "Definitely not happy for him right now."
Despite the loss Scrivens was looking to catch up with Greening before he left Scotiabank Place.
The goal came as a result of Ottawa winning the faceoff in Toronto's end, which left Jay McClement, who was on the ice for the play, shaking his head.
"We didn't get the job done," McClement said. "That's a game we've got to get a point out of.
Mika Zibanejad and Erik Condra also scored for the Senators), who got 26 saves from Ben Bishop. The win extends Ottawa's four-game winning streak.
The Senators have put together their best winning streak of the season without three key injured players — Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson or Milan Michalek.
"It feels great," captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "To be able to put a streak together like this. We had a tough game in Toronto last week and since then we've been playing pretty good. We've had guys step up."
The trio of Greening, Zibanejad and Condra combined for seven points and earned rave reviews from coach Paul MacLean for their efforts.
"They had a big night," MacLean said. "Offensively they were the best line so we tried to give them every chance."
Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur scored for Toronto. Scrivens, who made his seventh straight start, stopped 32 shots.
Trailing 2-1, the Leafs tied the game on a power-play goal at the seven-minute mark of the third period. With bodies sprawled in front of Bishop, MacArthur managed to find the puck and shove it in.
The Senators took a 2-1 lead with 41 seconds remaining in the second period on Condra's third of the season. The play was reviewed after Scrivens had little chance as Condra, who was pushed by Korbinian Holzer, fell into the Leafs netminder.
"The ref explained it to me and I may not agree with it, but I can sure respect what the referee decides," Scrivens said.
Derek Grant missed a wide-open net for the Senators, while Leo Komarov couldn't jump on Jay McClement's rebound quick enough to beat Bishop.
Toronto took the lead at 3:32 of the first as Grabovski's shot made it through traffic and beat Bishop through the legs.
The Senators tied it midway through the first on Zibanejad's third of the season. Zibanejad crossed the blue-line, passed to Greening who put a shot on goal, but it was Zibanejad who tipped it in as he made his way to the net.
NOTES: Ottawa was without Karlsson (Achilles, out for season), Spezza (upper-body injury, indefinite), Michalek (knee, day-to-day), C Peter Regin (day-to-day), D Jared Cowen (hip, out for season) and RW Guillaume Latendresse (whiplash, day-to-day). D Mike Lundin was a late scratch for the Senators due to the flu. ... Toronto was without LW Joffrey Lupul (forearm, two weeks), G James Reimer (knee, indefinite), forward Matt Frattin (knee, indefinite), RW Colton Orr (lower body, day-to-day). D Mike Komisarek and D John-Michael Liles were a healthy scratch for Toronto.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.