OTTAWA -- Curtis McElhinney was given another new lease on life when he was claimed off waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this week.

He responded with a standout performance in his debut on Saturday night.

McElhinney, who will serve as backup to Frederik Andersen, made 35 saves as the Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-2 at Canadian Tire Centre, pulling into a three-way tie with Ottawa and Florida for third place in the Atlantic Division standings.

"It was made clear to me early on, that's the situation they want, to have somebody there that they can trust, that they can put in maybe those back-to-backs or 3-in-4s or other situations," said McElhinney, who was on the bench as Toronto beat the New York Rangers 4-2 on Friday. "For me it was just going in there, building some trust with the guys."

The Maple Leafs are the sixth team for McElhinney, who suited up for seven games with the Senators in 2010-11.

"I think it's one of those things, you're always trying to figure out what they are going to play like defensively, offensively and all that stuff," said the 33-year old. "There's a little bit of sorting out, but for the most part I felt pretty comfortable right off the bat.

"It feels good to come to a new team and I think the most important thing is just to get off on the right foot."

Nazem Kadri scored twice for the streaking Maple Leafs, who are 9-2-3 in their last 14 games and 8-1-1 in their last 10 on the road. Tyler Bozak and Connor Brown had the other Toronto goals.

McElhinney, however, was the star of the night.

"I thought the goalie tonight was excellent for us," said Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "He made some big saves. He's been in the league a long time. You know he's a good guy and good pro. He's calm and he believes he's going to get the job done and I think that's a big part of it right there. As a goalie you want to be in there and you want to know you're going to get the job done.

Dion Phaneuf and Kyle Turris scored for Ottawa.

Making his 18th consecutive appearance in the Senators net, Mike Condon stopped 23 shots.

"They were only two points behind us with the same amount games played," said Turris. "They're our biggest rival, at home in our building, we know it was a big game. We talked about it, we wanted to make sure we were ready and had lots of energy.

"We had a good second, we've just got to come out with a bit more jump in the third."

The Maple Leafs had a 2-0 lead early in the second, but the Senators bounced back to tie the score with a pair before the intermission.

Kadri's second of the night turned out to be the winner at 2:31 of the third, coming moments after Turris, who was 70 percent in the circles, lost a rare draw to winger Leo Komarov.

"I was having a tough night in the faceoff circle," said Kadri. "Leo asked if he could take it, and I thought that was a pretty good idea seeing how I wasn't very good in the circle tonight. He did a great job winning it."

Said Turris: "That was frustrating. I said that when we got back to the bench. I thought I was doing fairly well in the draws, and then they scored off one to start the third ... it's just frustrating how it works."

Toronto padded the lead a little more than five minutes later when Auston Matthews put an offensive zone face through the skates of Jean-Gabriel Pageau and sent a quick pass to Brown, who one-timed a shot behind Condon.

"(Matthews) told me he was going to go forward and I was like, 'I don't know, maybe we should win it back. We're up one,'" said Brown. "I'm happy he went forward."

Senators coach Guy Boucher was pleased with the "character" his players showed by bouncing back, but not the manner in which they let it slip away. Particularly the two lost draws that resulted in the puck winding up in the back of the net.

"Those can't happen," said Boucher. "We have control of those ... definitely those two goals, we can take out of that game, and it's a different game. Even the first one. That's a goal out of nothing that we can't give. Right there, those goals against a team that's 7-1-1 before they play us, that's on fire, we know they're very opportunistic. You can't give them those."

Matthews pointed to the growth the Maple Leafs have made by the halfway mark of their schedule.

"Honestly tonight I don't think it was in particular our best game," he said. "I thought in the third we turned it around. Our pace of play was much better and we were controlling the puck.

"We're maturing at a pretty rapid pace. Early this season we definitely folded in these types of games, but now we're building it up. We're definitely coming out with confidence. We're playing the right way. We're being able to get these very important points. We caught up to them now in the standings."

NOTES: Senators D Frederik Claesson was Ottawa's lone scratch. Claesson has played just two games since Nov. 13. ... In his attempt to come back from concussion issues that have kept him out of the lineup for all but four games in the past two years, Senators LW Clarke MacArthur had his latest test on Friday. He is targeting a return day at the end of the month. ... Maple Leafs scratches were D Frank Corrado and LW Josh Leivo. ... Maple Leafs also scratched G Garret Sparks, who was recalled from the Toronto Marlies as a precautionary measure. ... The Senators next game is Tuesday in St. Louis. ... The Maple Leafs are at home to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.