Maple Leafs use four-goal third period to defeat Devils
Auston Matthews had a hat trick and an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs who rallied from two goals down in the third period to defeat the New Jersey Devils 6-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
“Our start wasn’t very good, it seemed like we weren’t ready to play from the puck drop and it showed,” Matthews said. “They’ve got a lot of really young, skilled guys that can make you pay. Credit to our guys for staying with it, staying patient, and continuing to fight. It was a huge play by the penalty killing with [Alexander Kerfoot] and [Ilya Mikheyev] to get us that goal there.”
Mikheyev broke a 4-4 tie at 16:56 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from Kerfoot on a 2-on-1 while shorthanded.
Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs (28-10-3), who have won four in a row. The goal extended Marner’s career-high goal streak to six games (six goals).
“I just find like I’m getting into open spots and I’m not afraid to shoot it,” Marner said. “Before maybe I would hold on to it an extra second trying to find another play but right now when it touches my stick, I’m just trying to one-time it or grip it and rip it.”
Jack Campbell allowed three goals on nine shots before being replaced in the first period by Petr Mrazek, who made 19 saves on 20 shots.
“Mainly (a reflection) on the team,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The type of chances we give up that early in the game, you don’t even give your goaltender a chance to get comfortable at all, so that’s why I took him out when I did and called a timeout. A lot of what we talked about was the fact that what we had done to Jack here, not giving him a chance to get comfortable in the game. Instead, he’s facing high-end shots, guys in alone, that’s on us.”
Jesper Boqvist had a goal and an assist, and Akira Schmid made 27 saves for the Devils (15-24-5), who have lost five in a row and eight of their past nine games (1-8-0). The Devils were playing without coach Lindy Ruff after his father, Leeson, died on Friday.
“[Losing to the Maple Leafs is] extremely disappointing,” New Jersey assistant coach Alain Nasreddine said. “We put ourselves in a good position to win a game against a good team but came up short in the end. It was exactly what we talked about, taking care of the puck and we did it, I would say, for most of the game but a team like that, we gave them too many opportunities there at the end and they made us pay.”
Jason Spezza took a pass from Mikheyev, who was behind the net and shot from the slot to cut the lead to 4-3 at 4:16 of the third period to end an 11-game drought.
Marner tied it 4-4 at 13:28 after taking a pass from Matthews in the slot.
“I think just doing what we do best in the third period (helped turn the momentum), forechecking, getting pucks back, getting around the net and being on pursuit of the puck the whole third period there,” Marner said. “But obviously we know we have to do better in the first forty (minutes) and something we have to make sure we bring tomorrow.”
The Devils and Maple Leafs play Tuesday at Prudential Center (7 p.m.; MSG, TSN4, ESPN+, NHL LIVE).
Pavel Zacha made it 1-0 when he took a pass from Jack Hughes and shot past Campbell 47 seconds into the first period.
Boqvist scored for the second-straight game to make it 2-0 at 6:20 when he put in a rebound at the top of the crease, but Matthews scored 13 seconds later to cut the lead to 2-1. The goal ended a four-game drought for Matthews.
The Devils went up 3-1 at 9:10 when Andreas Johnsson held the puck on a 2-on-1 and shot past Campbell’s blocker.
“We like that our team has lots of fight in it and keeps pushing and has confidence in its ability to come back in the game and score enough goals to win,” Keefe said. “Obviously, the start is not even close to good enough, it’s the kind of start that you deserve to lose games when you play like that, starting that way and spotting them three.”
Matthews cut the lead to 3-2 at 15:04 when he deflected Morgan Rielly’s shot.
Nathan Bastian made it 4-2 at 7:33 of the second period when he got to a loose puck in the slot and shot past Mrazek’s blocker.
“We just have to learn from our mistakes,” Zacha said. “Learning how to win is hard and when you are winning by two goals, it has to come someday so hopefully it’s going to come tomorrow (against Toronto). We just have to keep working hard, playing a little bit more simple and being more structured in the net-front area.”
Matthews scored into an empty net at 19:38 for the 6-4 final and his fifth career hat trick and ninth career four-point game.
Here's how the blue & white line up tonight#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/7PtWJn2B50
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 1, 2022
LEAFS WIN!!
Buds rally for another comeback!! #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/3Y5mJrAAkB
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 1, 2022
Four-point night to make it 400 on the career 👏#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/Bo5iDesahK
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 1, 2022
That’s four sure! ⭐️#LeafsForever | @Molson_Canadian pic.twitter.com/YeXBLUYUuA
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 1, 2022
Cue another third-period comeback win for the @MapleLeafs. 👀#NHLStats: https://t.co/LGa2Xuu1v0 pic.twitter.com/JfkO3xwIix
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 1, 2022
Ninth career four-point game.
Fifth career hat trick.
And 400 career points for @AM34.#NHLStats: https://t.co/LGa2Xuu1v0 pic.twitter.com/uDkvwf003f— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 1, 2022