Varone shines in Senators’ victory over Maple Leafs

When push came to shove, the Ottawa Senators bounced back Monday, opening the exhibition schedule with a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Phil Varone carried the magic stick, scoring twice and adding a pair of assists.

Logan Brown, Thomas Chabot, Matt Puempel and Casey Bailey also scored for the Senators.

Andrew Nielsen, Frank Corrado and Jake Gardiner scored for the Maple Leafs.

Don’t be fooled. The Senators were outplayed for long stretches — especially in the second period when they were guilty of backing up — and clearly won the goaltending battle.

Andrew Hammond and Chris Driedger were sharp. Antoine Bibeau and Kasimir Kaskisuo weren’t.

The Senators landed in Halifax two hours before game time, while Toronto set up training camp shop here on Friday.

As for established NHL forwards, the Senators boasted Jean-Gabriel Pageau and, well, no one. The Maple Leafs were also a shell of a regular season big-league team, but at least they gave their “home” crowd a taste of Nazem Kadri, Brooks Laich, Brandon Prust and that old Senators favourite, Colin Greening, up front.

Accordingly, Senators head coach Guy Boucher issued a challenge to all the hopefuls before boarding the afternoon flight.

“It reproduces the NHL environment,” he said. “You’re never healthy. You’re never fresh. You’re always tired or always injured. You’re never in perfect form to play a game. You travel, you get home at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. It’s another opportunity to see what you’ve got in an NHL setting. We want to see guys who are still pushing. Relentless. Not just working hard.”

It was actually more like an upscale AHL trip, flying in, playing a game and flying out on the same day.

Maybe that explains why AHL veteran Varone led the way.

“Whether it’s an offensive role or a defensive role, I want to show I will do whatever it takes,” said Varone, who is likely ticketed for Binghamton. “I see myself trying to fight for a spot. Getting traded here (from the Buffalo organization last season) was a fresh start for me.”

ON THEIR HEELS

The Senators’ second period was ugly — they went 10 minutes without a shot as they became, in Boucher’s words “way too passive” — but somehow they escaped the middle period with a 4-3 lead.

Hammond, who played the first half of the game, stopped 22 of 24 shots. The only blemish on Driedger’s night was Gardiner’s goal, a shot which banked off Mark Borowiecki’s skate..