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Backed by a party atmosphere outside at Maple Leaf Square and inside Scotiabank Arena, the Leafs turned hard-nosed hitting into a one-sided win in the first game of their best-of-seven opening-round series.

“To start off with the win is great,” said Leafs forward Mitch Marner. “It’s going to be even harder to win the next one.”

The Core Four and Morgan Rielly, so often criticized for coming up short in the playoffs, all asserted themselves against their provincial rivals in the first Battle of Ontario series in 20 years.

By the time it was over, Rielly had scored, Marner had a goal and two assists, John Tavares and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist, and Auston Matthews had two helpers.

鈥淚t was intense,鈥� said Tavares. 鈥淚t鈥檚 called the Battle of Ontario for a reason. It was a hard-fought game.鈥�

Oliver Ekman-Larsson opened the scoring and Matthew Knies closed it in a contest that got understandably chippy at the end, to the point where all 10 skaters on the ice with 44 seconds left were sent off, mostly for roughing.

The Senators were trying to send a message of their own, that they were tired of being pushed around.

Game 2 is Tuesday night.

Leafs get physical

The Senators聽鈥� who beat the Leafs all three times in the regular season聽鈥� could be forgiven for not quite realizing the Leafs can actually play hard-hitting, aggressive hockey.

The 19,702 towel-waving fans chanting 鈥淕o Leafs go鈥� loved it even more when the Leafs used their bodies, especially tickled when the likes of Nylander and Nick Robertson threw their weight around.

“The atmosphere was great,” said winning goalie Anthony Stolarz. “You got goosebumps when you stepped on the ice and the crowd goes nuts. I think that propelled us a lot tonight.”

The less experienced Senators were jittery to start, and ran into penalty trouble as they tried and failed to match the Leafs’ physicality.

鈥淵ou knew it was going to be a fiery series. That’s what tonight showed,” said Marner. “And I thought we did a good job of just staying calm in the moment. And when we had our looks, we made good on them.”

Indeed, unlike last year, the power play is clicking. They went 1-for-21 last year against Boston, a big reason the Leafs bowed out in seven games. They had three goals with the man advantage on Sunday.

“The power plays has聽been rolling for a while,” said Leafs coach Craig Berube. “For me, it’s about getting pucks to the net, with numbers at the net. And I can’t say enough about Matthew Knies and John Tavares in those areas.”

Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig scored for Ottawa, while captain Brady Tkachuk and goalie Linus Ullmark were targets of never-ending jeering.

Do the math

Winning the opener matters. Teams that take Game 1 in a best-of-seven win the series 68 per cent of the time.聽聽

Power-play differential

The difference, according to Senators coach Travis Green, was the power play. The Leafs had six, including a five-on-three; the Senators had just two. And Green sounded like he was greasing the wheels for a different outcome on the calls for Game 2.

“I thought there was a couple calls that they did a good job selling,” said Green. “It’s tough stuff on the refs. But we can’t take up any penalties, for sure.”

Stolarz vs. Ullmark

One area that Green denied was an issue was goaltending, with one questioner calling Ullmark’s performance “the elephant in the room.” Ullmark allowed six goals on 24 shots, including a couple shortly after Ottawa had scored to try to crawl back into the game.

“I like our goalie a lot,” said Green. “He’s a good goalie. He’s won a Vezina. There’s no elephant in our room.”

For Toronto, Stolarz admitted to some butterflies in his first post-season start.

“You step on the ice and you have those eager, anxious jitters just to get going.” said Stolarz. “But once I stepped out there, it was all about fun and going to work.”

He stopped 31 of 33 shots, many big when the game was close.

“Timely saves are huge,” said Berube. “He made some timely saves, really important to keep (the score) where it was and keep the momentum going. So, he was huge in that department, for sure.”

Experience shows

Heading into the game, the Leafs had far more playoff experience, 779 games to the Senators鈥� 298 鈥� mostly by David Perron (104), Claude Giroux (98) and Nick Cousins (63), who didn鈥檛 dress.

The Leafs came out hard, hitting everyone in sight, and scored first: Ekman-Larsson with a wrist shot 7:09 into the period after the fourth line did the work on the rush.

The big hits continued, including Simon Benoit levelling Dylan Cozens. The Senators discovered just how hard the playoffs can be.

Leafs ins and outs

The scratches were Max Pacioretty, David K盲mpf, Ryan Reaves, Philippe Myers, Dakota Mermis and Jani Hakanp盲盲 ... The Leafs called up goalie Artur Akhtyamov from the Marlies as the emergency backup.