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Reimer strong in net as Leafs stop Sens

Jan 2, 2011 - 6:01 AM Ottawa, ON (Sports Network) - Tyler Bozak had his first career two-goal game and Darryl Boyce netted his first NHL goal as Toronto smothered Ottawa, 5-1, at Scotiabank Place.

James Reimer turned aside 32 shots to earn his first career victory in his initial NHL start between the pipes.

"It was fun out there tonight," said Reimer. "It was one of the best games we've played since I've been here. The guys made everything real easy on me tonight."

Clarke MacArthur and Luke Schenn also potted goals for the Maple Leafs, who had dropped two straight and five out of six coming into the game. Joey Crabb, Tomas Kaberle and Phil Kessel each added a pair of assists.

Sergei Gonchar recorded the only goal for the Senators, who have lost three in a row and five of their last seven.

"We have to regroup," Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston said. "We have to make sure we understand what we need to do. It's going to take a whole team effort to get ourselves out of this. We put ourselves in this situation and we can't point fingers."

Brian Elliott allowed three goals on just seven shots before pulled being late in the first period. Mike Brodeur yielded a pair of goals on 14 shots in relief.

Toronto scored on its first shot of the night when MacArthur gathered a loose puck in the right circle, turned and ripped a slapper past Elliott just 1:57 into the contest.

The Leafs then converted a turnover at their blue line into the second goal of the night when Bozak, the trailer on a 3-on-2, wristed a shot past Elliott from between the circles with 7:36 left in the first period.

Kessel fed from behind the net to Crabb, who slid a cross-ice pass to Bozak, who put the puck home from the left doorstep to make it 3-0 a little less than three minutes later.

Elliott was then replaced by Brodeur with 3:50 remaining in the session.

After the Sens couldn't cash in on a two-man advantage to begin the middle stanza, the Leafs extended the lead to 4-0 with the teams at even strength.

Kris Versteeg split two defenders to a loose puck and his backhand shot was denied by Brodeur but Boyce swooped in to wrist home the rebound at 3:18.

Toronto tallied again 2:28 later when Schenn's wrist shot from the right point beat Brodeur low to the short side.

The Sens did take advantage of another 5-on-3 power play later in the period as Gonchar blasted a slap shot from inside the right point past Reimer at 13:00.

Game Notes

Reimer made his NHL debut on December 20 against Atlanta and stopped all four shots he faced...Boyce was playing in his second game this season and third of his career...Colby Armstrong recorded an assist on Boyce's goal and now has 18 career points against the Sens, his most versus any team...Toronto center Mikhail Grabovski had a six-game point streak halted...Elliot fell to 3-5-1 in his career against the Leafs...Gonchar scored his first goal since November 11.