In Toronto, the Maple Leafs broke out the offense and by the early second period had a 4-0 lead over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Auston Matthews picked up a hat trick in a 7-4 rout of the Devils.
“My linemates made some unbelievable plays to get me the puck tonight, so I just tried to put it in,” Matthews said. “Overall, we wanted to have a good bounce back game (after an 8-4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday). There was a bit of a lull in the second period, some stuff we’d like to clean up and do better, but all in all, nice to get back in the win column.”
Frederik Andersen made 25 saves in the win.
Blake Coleman had hat trick for the Devils.
“Not the setting I pictured it in, but it’s always special to get your first hat trick. That’s the kind of line we have around our team, which is to never give up and keep pushing, so that’s why I got it,” Coleman said. “We want to see push back in games like this, but it’s also fairly frustrating. Playing good hockey of late, (but) we didn’t show up for a period and a half, myself included. For whatever reason, we were flat and a good team like that can make you pay pretty quickly.”
PK Subban also scored for the Devils.
“There was no life on the bench, no energy. It’s no excuse,” Coleman said. “We prepared the same way as we have lately, the right way, but if you’re not feeling it, you have to keep things really simple and we didn’t do that. We put ourselves in a hole we shouldn’t have been in, and had we played the way we did the last 10 minutes, it would have been a different game.”
John Tavares, Zach Hyman, Frederik Gauthier, and William Nylander added single markers for the Leafs.
“Just continue to play well, do the right things and try to win hockey games,” Matthews said. “We’ve got a lot of key guys out, guys who play big minutes for us, leaders on this team, so now it’s an opportunity for other guys to step up and play a bigger role and try to exceed what they’ve done out there. It’s a challenge we all should look forward to.”
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Louis Domingue got the start for the Devils and made 14 saves before being given the hook after surrendering five goals.
“For some reason, we didn’t have it to start the game. We didn’t have our legs, there was no spark, the energy wasn’t there,” Devils coach Alain Nasreddine said. “I don’t have the answer why, but this was two different teams from tonight to the one from our last two wins against the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning.”
Cory Schneider made 13 saves the rest of the way.
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