Former Australia wing Lote Tuqiri was well held by the Saints defence
Second-placed Northampton narrowed the gap on Guinness Premiership leaders Leicester to a point thanks to a deserved win over their arch-rivals.
A penalty apiece from Jeremy Staunton and Stephen Myler made it 3-3 after 20 minutes at Franklin's Gardens.
Leicester lost captain Craig Newby to the sin bin on the half-hour mark for a spear tackle on Myler, who added two penalties in the Tiger's absence.
Saints captain Phil Dowson went over for the game's only try on 44 minutes.
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder:
"We have been renowned this season for scoring some good tries and the backs winning us games but this was a 15-man effort.
"Our forwards were outstanding, particularly in the scrum, which against Leicester you have to be.
"It has shown what we are capable of doing. It's all about doing that every single match and every single week.
"We have set ourselves a target of where we want to be with that performance tonight."
Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill:
"We started the game well but we gave stupid penalties away. Our ill-discipline from that point of view was disappointing.
"We gave them 12 points in the first half and they didn't do a lot for them. They went in 12-3 ahead and they didn't earn those points particularly, we gave them to them with our ill-discipline.
"They broke our line with a try at the start of the second half and it's then a hard game to chase. I'm disappointed all round really. We were second best in pretty much every department."
Replacements: Mayor for Downey (76), Dickens for Dickson (75), Long for Sharman (75), Morris for Mujati (71), Easter for Fernandez Lobbe (71).
Not Used: Dreyer, Cannon, Geraghty.
Leicester: Hamilton; Tuilagi, M Smith, Allen, Tuqiri; Staunton, B Youngs; Ayerza, Davies, White, Parling, Kay, Newby, Woods, Crane.
Replacements: J Murphy for M Smith (58), Vesty for Staunton (71), Grindal for B Youngs (75), Stankovich for Ayerza (75), Chuter for Davies (68), B Deacon for Crane (68).
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