Gavin McKenna scored the go-ahead goal at 4:56 of the third period for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
McKenna gave Toronto a 2-1 lead with his first power-play goal in the NHL. He took the puck from the bottom of the right face-off dot, dangled into the slot, and beat San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov with a wrist shot glove side.
“That’s a huge night for the group,” McKenna said. “That whole shift, the puck was bouncing around, and a lot of battle wins from the guys, and had a little bit of time and space in front. Shot low glove and it went in. (I was) pretty fired up.”
Monday was the first meeting between McKenna, who was the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, and Ivar Stenberg, who the Sharks selected with the No. 2 pick. McKenna scored the game-winner, and Stenberg was minus-1 with one shot on goal in 14:27 of ice time.
“Obviously, a lot of talk between us and he is a good player,” McKenna said before the game about facing Stenberg. “He’s having a good start to the year, but at the end of the day, I don’t really go out thinking it’s McKenna versus Stenberg. It’s Leafs versus the Sharks. It’s a team game so I’m looking forward to playing against them.”
Auston Matthews had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs (4-4-2), who snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1). Nick Paul also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves to win his first home game with Toronto.
“I thought we stuck with it. I thought we had some really good chances through 40 minutes at even strength, and Askarov made some good saves,” Maple Leafs coach Jim Hiller said. “I thought we did a really good job just staying and going forward today.”
Mason Marchment scored, and Askarov made 29 saves for the Sharks (4-4-1), who are 1-3-1 in their past five games. San Jose is 1-1-1 on a current six-game road trip and will face the Montreal Canadiens in the second game of a back-to-back on Tuesday.
“I think we’re all right. We know we can feel it. We’re not scoring right now. We’re getting some good looks. We got some good chances,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “I thought ‘Bob’ played really well, but there are still some consistency issues in our game, just all over with the puck and without it.”
Marchment gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 13:54 of the first period. Tyler Toffoli floated a puck from the left point to the net, where Marchment gloved it down at the top of the crease and lifted a backhand over Bobrovsky’s left pad.
“I just saw (Toffoli) keeping it in. I just tried to stay under him and made a great play through everyone,” Marchment said. “It was just a quick move and nice to get it by him.”
Matthews tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal at 19:48 of the second period. Kirill Marchenko was behind the net and found Matthews in the left circle with a pass, and his one-timer beat Askarov over the blocker.
“I think that’s just top to bottom, hard game, really good young skilled game, and I just thought all facets of the game we were really solid. Bob was great again,” Matthews said.
Paul added an empty-net goal at 19:20 of the third period after he raced down the right wing and scored from the top of the circle for the 3-1 final.
