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Maple Leafs rout Senators to improve to 2-0

Oct 10, 2010 - 3:40 AM TORONTO (AP) -- Fast, aggressive, confident.

It's the vision the Toronto Maple Leafs had entering the season, but couldn't be sure existed until they started playing meaningful games. The early returns have been even better than expected.

Newcomers Kris Versteeg and Clarke MacArthur each had a goal and an assist Saturday night and the Maple Leafs displayed a well-balanced attack in a dominant 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.

"That's a great style of hockey for our team," MacArthur said. "We didn't really give them a chance to even get anything going. We finished hits everywhere. That's what we want to do, we want to be rough and we want to slow guys down a lot finishing hits all nights.

"It wears teams out."

With two wins over division rivals to start the season, the formula has worked perfectly. Last season, Toronto's second victory didn't come until its 14th game.

For coach Ron Wilson, there's no mystery behind the better start.

"They're better players - period," he said.

Nikolai Kulemin, Phil Kessel and Tim Brent also scored and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 17 saves for Toronto, which opened the season Thursday night with a 3-2 home victory over Montreal.

Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa, coming off a 2-1 home loss to Buffalo on Friday night.

"Very disappointing," Senators coach Cory Clouston said. "We thought we had a pretty positive preseason, had a good week of practice. We've been outworked, outcompeted and outexecuted in all areas right now."

Toronto took an early 2-0 lead, with MacArthur setting up Kulemin at 1:38, and Kessel beating Pascal Leclaire off a feed from Versteeg at 7:51.

MacArthur scored midway through the second, Versteeg capitalized on a power play at 2:44 of the third, and Brent made it 5-0 at 5:39. Spezza spoiled Giguere's shutout bid at 7:11.

NOTES: Last season, Toronto needed 14 games to get its second victory. ... There were three fights in the third period. ... Leafs defenseman Brett Lebda (shoulder) hopes to make his debut with the team next week. ... Ottawa's Ryan Shannon and Toronto's John Mitchell were healthy scratches.