BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

EDMONTON — Dion Phaneuf had bestowed some of his finest expletives on the Edmonton Oilers bench, leaving a veritable blue streak from the point of his first period slapper that made it 1-0, all the way back to the Toronto Maple Leafs bench.

Then, with the game still very much on the line in the third period, he face-washed Taylor Hall from behind.

It was, the Leafs captain would later admit, "a dumb penalty."

"We knew they were a pretty confident group coming into this game, some of the things that were said," Phaneuf said, after his Leafs had easily dispatched the Oilers 4-1 to open their Western road swing Tuesday night.

Just four nights after the Tampa Bay Lightning had left Rexall questioning the level of respect these brash, young Edmonton Oilers have for the game, Phaneuf was asked if he had found them to be a cocky bunch as well.

"They’re a young team, and they play with a lot of energy," he said. "I wouldn’t use that expression, but I can see how they’d get under some teams’ skins."

Taylor Hall was the best Oiler on the ice Tuesday night, after mistakenly drawing the Leafs ire with this quote on Monday: "Hopefully we can compete a lot harder. Because (Toronto) is a team that, if we do, it’s there for the taking."

After the game was done, his coach — Tom Renney — suggested that Hall had backed up his words in spades. It was the rest of the Oilers that were taken to the woodshed by Toronto, a club that had looked every bit as futile two weeks before in a 5-0 loss to Edmonton at the Air Canada Centre.

"This is how he plays. This is great," Renney said of his prize rookie Hall. "We need some supporting cast."

After a wide-open first period in which Hall failed on two separate breakaways, the Maple Leafs exploited a lack of poise on Edmonton’s part, taking over the game with a two-goal second period.

Mikhail Grabovski (powerplay re-direct) and Kris Versteeg, with his 10th off a scrum in the crease, put the Leafs ahead 3-1. Phil Kessel’s power play goal closed the scoring in the third.

"We had three lines contributing in different ways," said Toronto coach Ron Wilson. "And Orrsy (Colton Orr) did a terrific job settling things down."

Orr edged Zack Stortini in a lengthy scrap midway through the game. The Oilers were upset that the Leafs heavyweight chose the smaller Stortini over the much larger Steve MacIntyre, an opponent Orr has fought countless times in his hockey career.

The bouts began back in 1999-2000 when the two prairie boys were budding Western Hockey League heavies, Orr in Swift Current and MacIntyre in Prince Albert.

"I don’t even know how many times we’ve gone," MacIntyre said a day before Orr’s arrival.

Left to his own devices after the scrap however, MacIntyre swiftly took two penalties that, along with Orr’s win over Stortini, helped to turn the momentum of the game in Toronto’s favour.

"He’s pretty selective," Renney said of Orr. "He has scrapped with Storts before, and he didn’t do too well with Mac in Toronto."

The fight card was, in the end, a microcosm for a Leafs team that simply outsmarted Edmonton before the usual loud throng of blue and white jerseys here in Edmonton. They outshot Edmonton 34-24, and after some river hockey in the first period the Leafs played what you’d call a mighty fine road game to earn just their fourth road win of the season.

"We knew it was a big road trip," said Phaneuf, who makes his first return to Calgary on Thursday.

Meanwhile in Edmonton, it’s back to the drawing board for Renney, who called out his veterans after the game, questioning his team’s "battle level, and willingness to go into the tough areas."

"Four minor penalties, none of them inside our blue-line, end of story. And a power play that was crappy," Renney said. "Looked like a minor hockey power play. Probably not even that."