In Toronto, Auston Mathews hit for his sixth hat trick of the campaign in a 9-2 rout of the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
The Maples Leafs went 4-for-5 on the power play.
“It’s obviously hard to put into words to be in the same sentence as a guy like that, so that’s all I’ll say about it, but it’s definitely pretty cool,” Matthews said.
Toronto improved to 29-16-8 off their third straight win.
Martin Jones made 19 saves in the win.
“It’s a great effort from our team all the way around,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s not often over 82 games that you get a game like this, where you sort of put it in cruise control for the second half and you’re just kind of letting the clock wind down.”
The Maple Leafs were on target in the opening stanza, taking a 4-1 lead into the middle frame.
Matthews hit for his first of the game at 3:41.
Bobby McMann extended the advantage to 2-0 with a power play strike at 6:06 off a shot from the left side.
The Maples Leafs kept the offense rolling with a marker from Jake McCabe at 10:33 for a 3-0 lead.
Anaheim broke the run with a power play goal from Frank Vatrano at 11:32 to cut the deficit to 3-1.
William Nylander pushed the lead back to three at 17:37 with another power play goal for the Male Leafs.
The Ducks dropped to 19-33-2.
“We stood around and watched them skate around the ice for the better part of the first period,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “I think the quick goals they got put us on our heels. They had three power-play goals in the first period. It’s a terrible start. It’s not the way you design it. Just a bad start.”
In the middle frame, the Maple Leafs added four more to the count for an 8-1 lead headed to the third period.
Matthews picked up his double off the power play with 50 seconds gone in the second period for a 5-1 lead. to the Leafs.
Tyler Bertuzzi got in on the offense with a power play strike at 2:51 for a 6-1 lead. .
“It was great,” Matthews said of Bertuzzi’s goal. “[Bertuzzi is] a big part of this team and a big part of our locker room. Seeing him get that one feels good for everybody, but I’m sure it feels really good for him. He’s had more than enough opportunities. Sometimes you just get a little snakebitten, but that one goes in and now you just don’t look back.”
Matthews collected his hats at 5:39 of the middle frame for a 7-1 lead.
“It’s exceptional. I’ve kind of gone through the phase where you’re in awe of Auston, but this seems to be a new standard for himself,” Keefe said. “To have a hat trick and then follow it up again, which as we know is not the first time he’s done this, it’s pretty remarkable.”
McMann picked up a double at 17:58 of the second to balloon the lead to 8-1 going to the third.
“It’s been a great development for us,” Keefe said. “What I see there is a guy given that he was going to be a healthy scratch earlier this week (when he scored a hat trick in a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday). If you put yourself in his shoes, I’m sure he’s like, ‘This is not good, I’ve had my chance and I’m starting to slip’. Once he got his chance, he’s showing that he’s not going to let this one slip. Tremendous week for him.”
Anaheim’s Ryan Strome added a cosmetic goal at 15:36 of the third period for an 8-2 score.
The Maple Leafs added an excuse me goal at 17:54 from Nicholas Robertson for the 9-2 final count on the scoreboard.
Lukas Dostal surrendered four goals and made 14 saves before getting the hook in the first intermission.
John Gibson made nine saves through the final 40 minutes..
“We just didn’t have any bite,” Cronin said. “It was the exact opposite of Ottawa (a 5-1 win on Thursday), where we were going out hunting pucks down, closing gaps quickly, and we just didn’t have any of that, and a lot of it has to do with Toronto, too. They came out the way we should have come out.”
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