Maple Leafs rout Senators, 7-3

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews didn’t do much more than strike for two goals and four points in a 7-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

“I’m just trying to shoot at what’s open to be honest,” Matthews said. “The puck is going in the net right now which is great, but the most important thing is we’re winning hockey games.”

Matthews has 24 points on 16 goals this season.

Michael Hutchinson made 34 saves in the win.

“He’s (Matthews) picking goalies apart; they don’t really stand a chance,” the Maple Leafs’ William Nylander said. “He’s doing it consistently too which is unbelievable. With his shot and where he scores from, it’s the best I’ve seen.”

Drake Batherson, Connor Brown and Tim Stutzle scored for Ottawa who never closer than three goals to the Leafs.

“We had legs, we were flying in the first period,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. “I just think they got a couple early and I think we got away from the way we have to play. We got sloppy. We gave them too much room to play. The positive was in the third period we got back to playing the way we do.”

Mitchell Marner and Joe Thornton also scored for Toronto.

“I’ve felt fine,” Thornton said. “It’s good for me to get a bunch of games in a row like this to get my timing back. I like rolling every other night and playing lots of games, so I think [the workload] is going to help me.”Ilya Mikheyev, Drake Batherson and John Tavares added markers for the Maple Leafs.

“I thought we came out and had a much better first period than our last outing on Wednesday, but I think our second period was our best period by far,” Matthews said. “I thought we really controlled the play and didn’t give them too much space. We kept coming wave after wave, all four lines and three pairs of defense.”

Marcus Hogberg got the start for Ottawa but left the ice midway through the opening frame with a lower-body injury.He made four saves and surrendered one goal.