Sometimes, you can’t script sports any better than the reality.
That’s what happened for Max Domi on Tuesday night as the Maple Leafs clashed with the Senators in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The easy headline is this: Domi fired a shot into the back of the net about three minutes into overtime. Ballgame, 3-2 Maple Leafs, 2-0 series lead.
But this gets so much crazier than that.
When Max was 9 years old, his father Tie Domi played for the Maple Leafs. And in this same round of the playoffs, in Game 5 of a series against the Senators, Tie scored the OT game-winner for the Leafs.
The magic repeated itself 21 years later in the most like father, like son moment imaginable.
Ottawa has to be tired of the Domi family by now.
But for the Maple Leafs, it’s absolute bliss.
MAX DOMI CALLS GAME 🍁
He buries the @Energizer OT winner and the @MapleLeafs have a 2-0 series lead! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/nAfdwuduR4
— NHL (@NHL) April 23, 2025
Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
Max likely spent his childhood imagining all his game-winning goals in this uniform. The only team Max’s father played for when he was at an age he could remember was Toronto. A decade in Maple Leafs blue for Tie got passed onto Max.
It’s been more of a nomadic NHL existence for Max, whose time in Toronto is his seventh team in the league. But he made it home at just the right time.
And somehow, the storybook came up with the right ending.
Sports have a way of pulling on the heartstrings when we’re not even expecting it.
Seriously, how is this possible? Father and son, for the same team, against the same opponent, in the same round of the playoffs, 21 years apart? It’s unbelievable.
But believe it, Toronto. Max Domi took the cape that his father Tie Domi once wore and made it his own. And the Maple Leafs are celebrating into the night because of it.
MORE: Jalen Brunson refuses to pass to Karl-Anthony Towns
Read the full article here