Maple Leafs score four in third period to rally past Devils

TORONTO --Auston Matthews scored a hat trick and had an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who rallied from down two goals in the third period to defeat the New Jersey Devils 6-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

Ilya Mikheyev gave Toronto a 5-4 lead at 16:56 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from Alex Kerfoot on a 2-on-1 while shorthanded.
Matthews then completed his fifth NHL hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:38 for the 6-4 final.
"Our start wasn't very good. It seemed like we weren't ready to play from the puck drop and it showed," Matthews said. "They've got a lot of really young, skilled guys that can make you pay. Credit to our guys for staying with it, staying patient, and continuing to fight. It was a huge play by the penalty killing with [Kerfoot] and [Mikheyev] to get us that goal there."

Mitchell Marner scored for the sixth straight game and had two assists for the Maple Leafs (28-10-3), who have won four in a row.
"I just find I'm getting into open spots and I'm not afraid to shoot it," Marner said. "Before, maybe I would hold on to it an extra second trying to find another play, but right now, when it touches my stick, I'm just trying to one-time it or grip it and rip it."
Jack Campbell allowed three goals on nine shots before being replaced in the first period by Petr Mrazek, who made 19 saves on 20 shots.
"Mainly (a reflection) on the team," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "The type of chances we give up that early in the game, you don't even give your goaltender a chance to get comfortable at all, so that's why I took him out when I did and called a timeout. A lot of what we talked about was the fact that what we had done to Jack here, not giving him a chance to get comfortable in the game. Instead, he's facing high-end shots, guys in alone, that's on us."
Jesper Boqvist had a goal and an assist, and Akira Schmid made 27 saves for the Devils (15-24-5), who have lost five in a row and eight of their past nine games (1-8-0). The Devils were playing without coach Lindy Ruff after his father, Leeson, died Friday.
"Extremely disappointing," said New Jersey assistant Alain Nasreddine, who coached in place of Ruff. "We put ourselves in a good position to win a game against a good team but came up short in the end. It was exactly what we talked about, taking care of the puck, and we did it, I would say, for most of the game, but a team like that, we gave them too many opportunities there at the end and they made us pay."
Jason Spezza took a pass from Mikheyev from behind the net and shot from the slot to cut the lead to 4-3 at 4:16 of the third period. The goal was his first since Dec. 4 (12 games).
Marner tied it 4-4 at 13:28 after receiving a pass from Matthews in the slot.
"I think just doing what we do best in the third period (helped turn the momentum), forechecking, getting pucks back, getting around the net and being on pursuit of the puck the whole third period there," Marner said. "But obviously, we know we have to do better in the first 40 and something we have to make sure we bring tomorrow."

The Devils and Maple Leafs play Tuesday at New Jersey (7 p.m.; MSG, TSN4, ESPN+, NHL LIVE).
Pavel Zacha made it 1-0 when he took a pass from Jack Hughes and scored 47 seconds into the first period.
Boqvist scored for the second straight game to make it 2-0 at 6:20 when he put in a rebound at the top of the crease, but Matthews scored 13 seconds later to cut the lead to 2-1 at 6:33.
The Devils went ahead 3-1 at 9:10 when Andreas Johnsson held the puck on a 2-on-1 and shot past Campbell's blocker.
"We like that our team has lots of fight in it and keeps pushing and has confidence in its ability to come back in the game and score enough goals to win," Keefe said. "Obviously, the start is not even close to good enough. It's the kind of start that you deserve to lose games when you play like that, starting that way and spotting them three."
Matthews cut it to 3-2 at 15:04 with a deflection Morgan Rielly's initial shot.
Nathan Bastian made it 4-2 at 7:33 of the second period when he got to a loose puck in the slot and scored past Mrazek's blocker.
"We just have to learn from our mistakes," Zacha said. "Learning how to win is hard, and when you are winning by two goals, it has to come someday, so hopefully it's going to come tomorrow. We just have to keep working hard, playing a little bit more simple and being more structured in the net-front area."
NOTES: Ruff will also miss the game Tuesday. ... Johnsson played the Maple Leafs for the first time since being traded to the Devils on Oct. 10, 2020. The forward, who was selected by the Maple Leafs in the seventh round (No. 202) of the 2013 NHL Draft, played his first three seasons with Toronto (2017-20). … The Maple Leafs have won consecutive games in which they trailed by multiple goals in the third period for the second time in their history. … Matthews has scored 400 points (227 goals, 173 assists) in 372 games, the fewest needed to reach the milestone in Toronto history.