OTTAWA (AP) – Dany Heatley extended his goals streak to four games with his fourth career hat trick and Jason Spezza and Joe Corvo each had five points, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 7-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

Heatley, who became Ottawa’s first 50-goal scorer last season, got his first goal of the game early in the second as the Senators scored twice within 17 seconds to take a 3-0 lead. He scored two goals 1:17 apart late in the second, both set up by Spezza and Corvo, to help Ottawa extend its lead to 6-2.

It was Heatley’s second hat trick with Ottawa. Acquired from Atlanta prior to last season, Heatley tied a team record almost one year earlier with four goals in an 8-0 win – also in his ninth game of the season – in Toronto on Oct. 29.

Corvo set a team record for points in a game by a defenseman when he assisted on Spezza’s fourth goal early in the third. The two Senators each had a goal and four assists, both setting personal bests for assists and points in a game. Spezza also set a team record for assists in a period with four.

Mike Fisher and Antoine Vermette each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, which beat Toronto for the second straight game, its third win in four meetings between the provincial rivals this season.

Bates Battaglia and Jeff O’Neill scored in the second to draw the Maple Leafs to 3-2.

Senators defenseman Chris Phillips and Wade Redden left the game in the third with lower body injuries.

Ottawa, which hadn’t won two in a row prior to Tuesday night’s 6-2 win in Toronto, extended its winning streak to three. The Senators have outscored their opponents 21-5 during the streak.

Fisher scored his second of the season 14:07 in. With a delayed penalty signaled against Toronto, Antoine Vermette’s shot went wide of the right post but struck Maple Leafs defenseman Ian White’s skate and rebounded back into the crease, where Fisher swiped the loose puck into a wide open net while he was sprawled on the ice.

Vermette and Heatley scored to make it 3-0 before Battaglia got Toronto’s first goal 3:46 into the period as the teams combined for three goals within 41 seconds.

O’Neill closed it to 3-2 at 11:50 when he tapped in a loose puck after Alexei Ponikarovsky cut around Corvo, who fell on the play.

Corvo restored Ottawa’s two-goal lead at 13:21 when he took a cross-ice pass from Spezza and moved into the right faceoff circle before driving a slap shot past Andrew Raycroft, who allowed all seven goals.

Notes: Canadian Idol 2006 winner Eva Avila, a native of nearby Gatineau, Quebec, sang “O Canada” prior to the game. … Heatley had eight goals at the same point last season. … Spezza previously had two four-point games, both last season. He had four assists last Nov. 2 in a 10-4 win in Buffalo, and two goals and two assists against Boston on Nov. 26. … Corvo, who signed as a free agent on July 1, had never had more than two points in a game during his three seasons with Los Angeles. He had two assists in four of his 11 previous two-point games. … Ottawa has won 10 of 12 games between the teams since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, outscoring the Maple Leafs 57-30 overall. … Maple Leafs C John Pohl and D Jay Harrison did not dress for the game. … Senators LW Peter Schaefer missed his third straight game because of a hip flexor injury. RW Denis Hamel was a healthy scratch.

AP-ES-10-26-06 2217EDT

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