Tavares scores twice in debut for Maple Leafs at Hockeyville

LUCAN, Ontario -- John Tavares scored two goals in his preseason debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs, helping them to a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Kraft Hockeyville Canada on Tuesday.

"It's just nice to be out there again, absorbing contact," Tavares said. "You have offseason, then training camp, competing in practices, then get to play against opponents that aren't on your team. Some of that stuff is nice to get going. You want to do good things. And it's always good to get rewarded."

Tavares, who signed a seven-year, $77 million contract July 1 after nine seasons with the New York Islanders, was left alone in front of the Senators net and made a nifty move to beat Mike Condon for a power-play goal at 5:12 of the first period that tied the game 1-1.

"When you have a guy that has lots of skill and lots of determination, that can be a lethal combination," Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said.

Mitch Marner scored and assisted on each of Tavares' goals, the second at 6:06 of the third period when Marner fed Justin Holl at the point. Tavares, outmuscling defenseman Patrick Sieloff, put in the rebound of Holl's shot past Marcus Hogberg for a 3-1 lead.

Marner made it 4-1 at 11:48 of the third off an assist from Tavares.

Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who played their first game since trading defenseman Erik Karlsson to the San Jose Sharks on Sept. 13.

"Until the very end our guys pushed," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "There was a lot of good things from a lot of players. I really liked the attitude on the bench. It was terrific."

Matt Duchene took the puck away from Nazem Kadri and fed Dzingel to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead 21 seconds into the first period.

"I just go out there, try to work with [Matt] and try to understand where he wants me and where he wants the puck," Dzingel said.

Andreas Borgman gave Toronto a 2-1 lead at 6:34 of the first. The defenseman started the sequence when he dropped the puck to Trevor Moore in the Maple Leafs zone. Moore fed a stretch pass to Emerson Clark, who passed to Borgman between the circles for a one-timer.

Curtis McElhinney (12) and Garret Sparks (21) combined to make 33 saves for Toronto. Condon (18) and Hogberg (eight) made 26 for Ottawa.

"I thought our [defensemen] played well, our forwards played well and our goalies were outstanding," Rielly said.

The Maple Leafs and Senators played at Lucan Community Memorial Centre, which received $250,000 in upgrades after earning the highest number of votes to win Kraft Hockeyville Canada 2018.