The Toronto Maple Leafs bounced back from a lacklustre performance in their season opener to humble a stunned Ottawa Senators team Thursday night at Scotiabank Place.
Toronto produced an unexpectedly good night of special-teams play that spearheaded a convincing 6-0 win over the Senators in the back leg of a home-and-home series against its Northeast Division rivals.
Darcy Tucker and Chad Kilger led Toronto with two goals apiece, while Kyle Wellwood led all scorers with four assists.
Leafs captain Mats Sundin also had a productive night, finishing the game with two assists.
Goaltender Andrew Raycroft had another solid performance for Toronto, stopping all 34 Ottawa shots. Despite Wednesday's lopsided defeat to the Senators, Raycroft made 32-of-35 saves.
"It's nice to get it out of the way," said Raycroft, who stopped 34 shots. "You don't want to go 0-2 to start the season, then the sticks start tightening up."
Missed scoring opportunities, an inept power play and poor defensive coverage contributed to Toronto's eighth loss in its last nine meetings against Ottawa prior to Thursday's game.
But this night proved a complete reversal for the Leafs.
Toronto surprised Ottawa with a short-handed goal at 11:03 of the first period to open the scoring.
With the Senators pressing in Toronto's zone, Chad Kilger broke up ice, took a pass from Mike Peca and blasted a low shot that beat goaltender Martin Gerber under his left pad.
"It was nice for us to get out and get a lead and see how we handle it," Kilger said.
The Leafs took a 2-0 lead more than three minutes later on the power play. Defenceman Bryan McCabe fed Darcy Tucker, who snapped a shot over the shoulder of Gerber to the short side.
Raycroft bailed out his teammates following a turnover in Ottawa's end that turned into a breakaway by Peter Schaefer.
As Schaefer raced in on Raycroft, the Toronto netminder alertly used a poke check to steer the puck out of harm's way with less than two minutes remaining in the first.
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