Maple Leafs rout Vegas, 7-3 Leafs' four-goal fist ends the suspense early

In Las Vegas, the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs obliterated any chance the Golden Knights had to contend on Thursday night when they hit for four goals in the opening stanza in a 7-3 win.

Auston Matthews collected his 52nd goal of the season midway through the third period for the final score.

Max Domi hit for a double in the win.

“When we get everyone going like that, we’re a tough team to beat,” Domi said. “We can play with anyone. We have four lines going short and hard. Everyone sticking to their game plan, keeping it simple, staying disciplined. When we do that, we come at teams in waves. That’s the ex-Stanley Cup Champions. They might not have had their best tonight, but that’s a tough team to play against. We just got to keep building.”

Martin Jones made 22 saves in the win.

The Maple Leafs improved to 32-16-8 off their sixth straight.

scored twice, had a goal and an assist, and Mitchell Marner had two assists for  who have won six in a row.

The first period was a disaster for the Knights.

Jake McCabe opened the scoring midway through the period for a 1-0 lead to the Maple Leafs.

David Kampf scored 70 seconds later to push the lead to 2-0.

John Tavares opened the lead up to 3-0 at 14:20 with a shot short from the right circle.

Domi ballooned the advantage to 4-0 with his first of the game at 16:11.

“We got through the first few minutes where they were really coming at us,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Once we adjusted to the game — that’s a good team over there, quite obviously, they play at a high level, compete at a high level. So, it demands more of the group — Once we adjusted to that, we really started to come. We started to skate really well. We had to be committed to getting to that space. Every single line did a really good job.”

The Golden Knights dropped to 32-19-6 off their fourth loss in five. matches.

“The big emphasis is the first period. I mean, you got some guys who can score, right?” Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo said. “So, you got to defend those guys as a group of five. I thought we got a little bit disconnected defensively, so we just need to be better as a whole defensively, especially this last stretch here.”

In the middle frame, Vegas’ William Karlsson tried to rally the Golden Knights with a goal with 51 seconds gone in the period.

The Maple Leafs replied with Domi’s double at 11:44 for a 5-1 lead.

“We were late on pucks all over the ice and you made some egregious mistakes, and they capitalized. That’s what happened,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.

Toronto’s  Pontus Holmberg pushed the advantage to 6-1 at 15:36 of the second period.

Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault scored with 59 seconds gone in the third period to make the score, 6-2.

The Knights’ Michael Amadio added another to the scoreboard to make it 6-3 just 26 seconds later

Matthews ended the Vegas run with his goal at the 10-minute mark for the 7-3 final.

“It was a good job by ‘Matty’, and I found him,” Holmberg said. “It was a good goal. His play is really good. He scored again. That dude is crazy.”

Adin Hill got the start for Vegas, he surrendered three goals while making 17 saves in the first period. He got the hook during play in the first.

Logan Thompson made 18 saves the rest of the way.