Phil Kessel scored the winning goal and Jonas Gustavsson shut the door on Jason Spezza to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

Kessel, who scored his 22nd goal and had another potential goal waved off in the second, went way wide to the right boards and came in slowly before deking and putting a shot between Pascal Leclaire's legs to convert Toronto's opener in the tiebreaker.

"I practised it a couple of times last year in Boston," Kessel said. "I was too nervous to bring it out but I missed the other night so I thought, 'What the heck, let me try something different.' I was going to shoot but he didn't give me anything, so I just kind of improvised."

Nikolai Kulemin ended it when he scored on the Maple Leafs' second attempt.

While the provincial rivalry has lost some of its bitterness over the last couple of years, the two teams more than made up for that on this night.

The game was slow to get started as neither team seemed to create any momentum, but a hit by the Senators' Chris Neil on John Mitchell at the 14-minute mark seemed to spark both teams. Mitchell left the game and didn't return.

From that point on, tempers grew short and scrums broke out after nearly every whistle.

The Senators managed to come out on top after one of those scrums with a power play and made the most of it as Neil scored on a Spezza rebound to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead.

Already down a player, the Leafs then lost the services of Fredrik Sjostrom early in the second as he injured his left arm. The Senators gained a body as Zack Smith arrived from Binghamton in time to start the second.

"A lot of us are pretty tired right now," said Maple Leafs centre Tyler Bozak, who assisted on Kessel's goal. "We played a lot of minutes tonight."

The Leafs tied the game 1-1 at 6:50 of the second period when Kessel's wrist shot flew past Leclaire's stick side.

Leclaire solid in 3rd

Leclaire, who hadn't played a full 60 minutes since Jan. 10, was solid for the Senators in the third as the Leafs had three power-play opportunities, including a 24-second two-man advantage.

Toronto was 0-for-6 with the man advantage.

Ottawa was in need of a strong showing by Leclaire as the Senators were without captain Daniel Alfredsson and Peter Regin, the latest victims of a flu bug making its way through the team.

A number of players had been struck by the illness, but managed to play their way through it, although some were forced to leave the bench during play.

"It was a tough game," Neil said. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to play tonight but the guys battled through it and we were able to get a point out of it but it would have been nice to get two."

Gustavsson stopped 22 shots in his first start since playing for Sweden during the Olympics

The Leafs (20-32-12), who were coming off a shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday night, are 1-2 since returning from the Olympic break.