TORONTO (AP) -- The battered and bruised Ottawa Senators were the ones who put the hurt on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

	Toronto's Dmitri Khristich gets sandwiched between Ottawa's Janne Laukkanen, left, and goaltender Ron Tugnutt.

The Senators, despite the absence of four injured defensemen, stymied the Maple Leafs with their neutral-zone trap and skated away with a 3-1 victory Monday night.

The victory kept Ottawa within striking distance of Toronto, the Northeast Division-leaders. Ottawa had won only two of 11 games.

"It was kind of a painful game to watch," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "And disappointing because we're not going to find Ottawa (short-handed) like that in our next two games and in the playoffs."

Radek Bonk, Shawn McEachern and Marian Hossa scored for the Senators, who moved within five points of Toronto.

"It was a real gut check for our team, the way things have gone lately, to come in and play a tough opponent that is leading our division," Ottawa goalie Ron Tugnutt said. "We haven't been scoring, so we said we had to prevent them from scoring."

Jonas Hoglund scored for the Maple Leafs, who lost for only the fourth time in 20 home games.

"We came off an emotional home-and-home series with Philadelphia and we came out flat," Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph said. "Real good teams should bounce back after an emotional charge like that."

Ottawa outshot Toronto 28-18, tying the Maple Leafs' season low.

"I had prepared myself thinking I was going to get a lot of work but this team never ceases to amaze me at times," Tugnutt said. "When we put our mind to it, defensively, we're as good as anybody in this league."

After Hoglund and Bonk exchanged second-period goals, McEachern took an Andreas Dackell pass and slapped in the winner from the faceoff circle at 1:17 of the third period.

"Dacks made a nice pass out front and I just tried to one-time it on net," McEachern said. "One of their guys got a piece of it, and that's what fooled Joseph."

Five minutes later, Toronto's Garry Valk had Tugnutt beaten, but his sliding shot was stopped by a post.

"I thought I had enough on it to get it into the net," Valk said. "Close, but no cigar."

Hossa's goal at 16:26 was the finishing touch.

The Senators were without defensemen Sami Salo (broken wrist), Jason York (groin strain), Chris Phillips (ankle) and Igor Kravchuk (sprained knee). Forward Kevin Dineen also missed the game with an injured groin.

David Van Drunen, who was recalled from Grand Rapids of the IHL, played his first NHL game when Kravchuk was ruled out. Van Drunen began his season with the ECHL's Mobile Mysticks.

"We're down to our 10th or 11th defenseman on the depth chart," Tugnutt said. "It's great to see these guys get a chance to play in the NHL and play as well as they can. Our defense corps did an outstanding job in blocking shots, keeping shots to the perimeter and clearing rebounds."

It was the first game of a four-game road trip.

"We saw an opportunity to win," Tugnutt said. "That brought our team back to the way we played early in the year, where as soon as we got the lead we kept attacking. In the last couple of weeks, we've kind of sat back and hoped to win. This time we went out and took charge and made sure we won."