Tugnutt, Ottawa Cuts Down Leafs

Ron Tugnutt made 25 saves as the Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 Saturday night in a meeting of the top two teams in the Northeast Division.

Alexei Yashin, Marian Hossa and Vaclav Prospal scored for the Senators before 18,500 fans at the Corel Centre, Ottawa's 11th sellout of the season.

Derek King scored for the Maple Leafs, the first team to score 200 goals this season. Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph made 27 saves while losing to Ottawa for the first time (10-1).

The Eastern Conference-leading Senators opened a five-point lead on the Maple Leafs in the Northeast with the victory, Ottawa's first of the season against Toronto. The Maple Leafs earlier had two one-goal decisions over the Senators, one in overtime.

Ottawa's club-record sixth consecutive home win also extended team records for wins in a season (36) and games above .500 (18).

Yashin and King traded first-period, power-play goals. The Ottawa captain put Sami Salo's rebound past Joseph 1:11 into the game for his 33rd goal of the season and his 11th in 12 games.

King scored on a broken play at 11:35, with 22 seconds left in an interference penalty to Senators defenseman John Gruden.

Gruden was called up from the Detroit Vipers of the IHL to replace Wade Redden, who injured a shoulder in Ottawa's 5-0 win in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Toronto's Steve Sullivan was awarded the first penalty shot of the season at the Corel Centre when Gruden hauled him down on a breakaway at 7:09. Tugnutt, the league-leader with a 1.66 goals-against average entering the game, stopped Sullivan's forehand attempt with his left pad.

Hossa scored the winner 39 seconds into the second period and Prospal added an insurance goal at 3:41. Prospal deflected Igor Kravchuk's point shot for his second goal in 40 games.

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