Matthews ties Sittler for 2nd on Maple Leafs goal list in win against Hurricanes

TORONTO -- Auston Matthews scored his 389th NHL goal to move into a tie for second place in Toronto Maple Leafs history in a 6-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

The Toronto captain scored into an empty net at 18:37 of the third period to tie Darryl Sittler behind only Mats Sundin (420 goals) in Maple Leafs history.

Pontus Holmberg had two goals and an assist, Alex Steeves scored his first NHL goal and had an assist, and John Tavares also had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (34-20-2), who have won four of their past five. Anthony Stolarz made 31 saves.

Toronto led 4-0 until Carolina scored three times in 2:41 starting at 12:25 of the third period to cut it to 4-3.

“I’m just worried about stopping the next puck,” Stolarz said. “At the end of the day it’s my job to get out there and try to make the saves. Just a couple unfortunate bounces. … It’s part of the game, it is what it is but the way we battled back and didn’t really fold under the pressure and were able to close it out, it’s a huge two points for us.”

Andrei Svechnikov and Shayne Gostisbehere each had a goal and an assist and Pyotr Kochetkov made 17 saves for the Hurricanes (33-20-4), who have lost four of their past five.

“The start was junk,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They get up four so they don’t really have to do anything so it was good we got three, gave us a chance but you can’t come out in the first period and just play that light in our own end. We were making really poor decisions and they’re too good, they’re going to score when you do that.”

“The ones we gave up early were gifts. … That’s stuff we normally don’t do. That’s why you lose the game.”

The Maple Leafs went up 1-0 at 2:50 first of the period when Steeves one-timed a pass from Tavares at the right face-off dot after Tavares intercepted Brent Burns’ pass in the slot. It was Steeves’ first goal in his 12th NHL game.

“It felt really good,” Steeves said. “Bit of a relief honestly, beautiful play by Johnny. It was nice to get the game started like that.”

“I don’t really know [what I’ll do with the puck], I’m not really one to display all that stuff. I don’t even have a house, I live in my parents’ basement in the summer. I’m sure my mom will have a little shrine of it in my room.”

Steeves leads the American Hockey League with 29 goals in 40 games with Toronto.

“He had a good game,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “The whole line was good. He did a lot of good things for us tonight. … I thought he was hard on the forecheck, he plays a simple game. It’s a simple game, it’s direct and that’s what I like about him.”

Holmberg made it 2-0 at 3:29 when he jammed at a rebound in the goal crease from Matthews’ shot. While the puck lay on the goal line, Jordan Staal inadvertently banked it in off Kochetkov in his attempt to clear it.

David Kampf pushed it to 3-0 at 6:39 when he took a pass from Steven Lorentz in the slot and shot past Kochetkov’s outstretched left pad.

Tavares put Toronto up 4-0 at 15:06. After Tavares took a pass from William Nylander in the slot, Kochetkov dropped his stick and reached with his blocker but was only able to get a piece of Tavares’ shot.

“The goalie played good after that,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s not on him. That’s a cop out changing the goalie at that point when it’s not on him.”

Gostisbehere cut it to 4-1 at 12:25 of the third period when he skated into the slot from the blue line and one-timed a pass from Sebastian Aho, who was behind the net.

Svechnikov made it 4-2 at 14:46 when he one-timed a pass from Mikko Rantanen at the top of the right circle that deflected off Jake McCabe in the slot.

“Very difficult (starting after two weeks off) especially on the road, it’s always hard to start but it’s all excuses, we just have to play better and play our game,” Svechnikov said.

Jaccob Slavin cut it to 4-3 at 15:06 when he put in a rebound that came to him at the side of the goal crease after Brent Burns shot deflected off Staal in the slot.

“I thought we probably backed up a little bit too much in the third and let them come at us,” Berube said. “They made it interesting there. They’re good at that. I’ve seen them do that numerous times where they are going to come no matter what the score and put pressure on you. In the third, I’d like to see our team a little bit more aggressive up ice and not backing in so much.”

Matthews shot into an empty net with 1:23 remaining to make it 5-3 before Holmberg added another empty-net goal with 20 seconds left for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: Matthews’ goal extended his point streak to five games (one goal, seven assists). … Burns skated in his 900th straight game dating back to Nov. 21, 2013, The defenseman is the sixth player in NHL history to accomplish the feat.