Maple Leafs goaltender Vesa Toskala denies a shot off the stick of Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson in the first period. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

During the first intermission Saturday night, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Dominic Moore said the team needed to keep it simple and get pucks behind the Ottawa defence.

Blue-liner Pavel Kubina did just that in the third period, firing a pass to Alex Ponikarovsky from near the Senators' goal line for the decisive goal in a 3-1 Toronto victory on home ice.

Moore also followed his own advice in the second, grabbing a loose puck behind Ottawa defenceman Anton Volchenkov and backhanding the puck over goaltender Martin Gerber's left shoulder to answer Daniel Alfredsson's first-period goal.

"I don't think we were playing badly to that point but our team thrives on momentum and confidence," said Moore. "So getting that first goal and getting our feet under us was good."

Jason Blake beat Senators goalie Martin Gerber on a wraparound for an insurance marker to lift Toronto to win No. 6 in its last eight meetings against its Northeast Division rival. The Maple Leafs improved to 16-17-6 on the season.

"We tried to answer hit-for-hit — they were hitting a lot," said Ponikarovsky. "We tried to do the same thing, mirror them, don't give them any opportunity that they can throw us around. We showed that."

Scoring continues to be a problem for Ottawa, which stopped skating in the third period on the way to its 13th loss in the past 14 road starts.

The Senators, a disappointing 13-18-5 overall, entered Saturday's physical contest with an NHL-low 82 goals this season and had only Alfredsson's goal to show at the end of the night.

An Ottawa power play that had converted six of 20 chances in the previous five games struck once in five tries against a Maple Leafs penalty-kill that had a paltry 53.3 per cent success rate during the team's 1-4 slide.

From there, Toronto netminder Vesa Toskala shut the door with a 30-save performance.

"I felt good, especially [in] the second and third [periods]," said Toskala, who began the night with a 3.32 goals-against average and .882 save percentage in 32 games.

The struggling Finn was brilliant in the third period with the game tied 1-1 as he denied Leafs killer Dany Heatley — 26 goals in 34 career games against Toronto — from the slot and thwarted Alfredsson on an end-to-end rush.

"A very tough loss for us," said Alfredsson. "We started the game really good, created a lot of chances. Toskala played outstanding tonight, we should've had four or five goals.

"He keeps them in the game, they get a couple of chances and score."

At the other end Gerber, who stopped 27 shots in his third straight start, also received help from the goal post as Niklas Hagman one-timed a shot off the iron after a beautiful cross-crease pass from Mikhail Grabovski with 13 minutes left in the third.

Kubina turned the momentum in the Leafs' favour after spending two minutes in the penalty box for holding. After exiting the box, he jumped on a loose puck in the Ottawa zone, put on the brakes and found Ponikarovsky, who wristed a shot to the far corner for his 12th goal of the season and first in six outings.

The Senators lost Volchenkov in the third period after he took a hit from Nik Antropov. He appeared to re-aggravate a right shoulder injury that cost him three games.

The hard-fought affair, in front of a crowd of 19,406 on Canadian Forces Appreciation Night at the Air Canada Centre, brought back memories of the bitter games the teams played in years past.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk and his family dropped the puck in the ceremonial faceoff before joining the crowd in singing O Canada.

The animosity began on the first shift when Jason Spezza got his hands in Moore's face on a hit in the boards and later speared his opponent, earning a trip to the box.

Mike Fisher went at every blue shirt he could while Jeff Finger sent a few white jerseys into the boards. A handful of scrums developed after the whistle but players did little more than dance.

The Maple Leafs also paid tribute to Don Sanderson of the Ontario Senior AAA Whitby Dunlops, who died Friday, three weeks after hitting his head on the ice during a fight.

With files from the Canadian Press