KANATA — Although the Ottawa Senators have controlled possession and shot attempts through the first two games, it hasn’t resulted in anything meaningful, trailing 2-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Claude Giroux have out-chanced the Maple Leafs 39-8 at 5-on-5, with a 60 percent share of the expected goals, but it hasn’t translated into real success. Toronto is limiting the quality of scoring chances, and are effectively allowing Ottawa burn empty calories, while keeping attempts away from their net.

If you ask the Senators’ stars, they’re not particularly concerned about the results at 5-on-5, despite the Maple Leafs holding a 5-2 goal differential.

“We’ve just got to find a way to limit their chances, and obviously, we’re giving them power play time, that didn’t really help us. I think 5-on-5, we’ve done a pretty good job so far, and I hope the matchup (goes) well tonight,” Stutzle said during after the Senators’ morning skate.

“I think we can create more chances. I feel like we’re getting more. We haven’t really scored yet, but we can overcome and we just have to keep finding ways to get more high-danger chances.”

Toronto won the shots blocked differential 32-6 in Game 2, effectively waiting to counterattack Ottawa after racing out to a 2-0 lead. It may have been an overly passive strategy by the Maple Leafs, but they won the game in transition, when Simon Benoit picked off an errant pass from Drake Batherson, raced up the ice, dropping a pass for Max Domi, who wired a shot off the post and in to seal a 3-2 overtime victory.

“Blocked shots means we had the puck a lot,” Tkachuk said. “We just have to keep playing the way we have been playing offensively. They’re putting an extra emphasis on blocking shots, doing whatever takes to win. It’s just about finding those lanes, getting guys open and creating those opportunities still. You’ve got to give credit to them, they’re sacrificing their bodies to get the job done. There’s different things, different looks we’ve talked and worked on, and hopefully we can apply them.”

It’s not lost on the Maple Leafs either, who aren’t being complacent with the series lead. Maple Leafs star winger Mitch Marner told reporters Tuesday that his team needs to do a better job of sustaining pressure in the offensive zone, and it’ll be a key directive, even if his team has survived winning on the strength of a scorching power play, counterattacking and superior goaltending.