Five straight goals from the Los Angeles Kings put the Toronto Maple Leafs on their heels and the Kings improved to 10-2-1 with a 5-3 win.
It didn’t come easy after the 5-0 lead with the Leafs rallying late.
Auston Matthews started the rally with a penalty shot (his first in the NH and scored his 10th of the season.
“We’ve got so much skill up front, so if we can just limit the turnovers we’ll be fine,” Toronto’s Jake Gardiner said after the loss.
Morgan Rielly and Connor Brown added goals but te tally fell short as the Leafs dropped to 8-6-0.
“You just got to be ready,” Toronto head coach Mike Babcock said after his club yielded three goals in the first period. “It’s a back-to-back night. We got in early, we ate, we should’ve been fresh. There should have been no issue, and yet we made those mistakes in the first period.”
Tyler Toffoli struck twice and Michael Amadio, Michael Cammalleri and Trevor Lewis scored for LA to build the 5-0 lead.
“I think we came out right away and we played really hard and played fast and played our game,” LA’s Adrian Kempe said.
Jonathan Quick made 33 saves to pick up the win.
[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Kings highlights]
Curtis McElhinney made 23 in taking the loss.
“Our record has been pretty good so far, so I don’t know if it’s specific to the East, but we know we have to play good defense, we can’t give up the rush game,” LA head coach John Stevens said after defeating the Maple Leafs.
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