Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Maple Leafs’ teammates Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews celebrate a goal against the Ottawa Senators during third period NHL playoff action in Toronto on April 20.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press The Maple Leafs were keeping things low-key on Friday after taking a 3-0 lead in the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades. There was no bulletin-board material for the floundering Senators to feast on, or at least give them a little boost. Nothing even came close. There was lots of talk about processes and systems and executing better. They were dull to an exclamation point. No need to stir up a hornet’s nest now. Ottawa has lost the last two games of the opening round in overtime and no matter how much its players talk of bravely soldiering on, that has to have hurt them badly. The Senators face elimination for the first time on Saturday at the risk of disappointing their long-suffering fans. Thursday’s disappointment came in the team’s first home playoff game in eight years. The last time the Maple Leafs got the broom out in the postseason was in 2001 – and the poor Senators were the victims then, too. A Game 5, if needed, would be held in Toronto on Monday. It’s a gargantuan challenge for Ottawa, which came into the playoffs full of confidence. They defeated the Maple Leafs in all three regular-season games between them. Only four NHL teams have ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series in more than 100 years. So you say it’s possible, then? Hope springs eternal in hockey dressing rooms no matter what. Toronto has gone 16-3-1 in its past 20 games, postseason included. It won its division in an 82-game season for the first time in 25 years and seems to be hitting all the right notes at the right time. “I think it’s important for us to continue to focus on our process and not necessarily focus on the results,” the defenceman Brandon Carlo said. “We have to look at what we need to do shift-by-shift to have the outcome we would like. “You can’t get too far ahead of yourself. Closing out a series is tough. To have a killer instinct is huge. You don’t want to give any team life.” That was about as controversial as anything anyone said. Nope, nothing to see here. They did their best, too, to stamp out what could possibly be a breaking news story. The NHL’s disciplinary team was investigating whether Ottawa’s Nick Cousins hit a puck at Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz during Thursday’s pregame warm-ups. “I didn’t see it,” Morgan Rielly, another Maple Leafs defenceman, said. Max Domi feigned being puzzled. “I don’t have a clue what you are talking about,” he said. Later, the NHL fined the Senators $25,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and Cousins $2,083.33. Domi also praised the opposition. “We just have to win a game,” he said. “That’s it. But they are a hell of a hockey team. Every game so far has been tough and there is no reason the next one is not going to be tougher.” Ottawa’s coach Travis Green spoke about how his team will not back down no matter how dire the circumstances. The Senators can’t worry about winning four straight games, he said, just one. Many coaches have parroted that when trailing 3-0. Only four ended up winning a series. Craig Berube, who led the St. Louis Blues to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2019, wasn’t giving anything up, either. Loose lips and all of that. “We have to continue to do a lot of the things we have been doing,” he said. “There are always things you can clean up and do better. We’ve been doing lots of good things.” He didn’t exactly throw down a gauntlet. “We’ll get the hardest game tomorrow,” Berube said. “It’s always that way. It is going to boil down to competitiveness and battles. “We’ve been really good when it comes to composure and discipline over this last stretch. We’ve remained patient and have kept doing our jobs defensively and that’s been a big part of it.”