Matthews at 43 goals with hat trick, Maple Leafs defeat Kraken

TORONTO-- Auston Matthews scored a hat trick for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-4 comeback win against the Seattle Kraken at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

The center tied it 4-4 at 9:03 of the third period when he took a pass from Michael Bunting on a 2-on-1 and scored with a backhand. Mitchell Marner gave Toronto a 5-4 lead 40 seconds later from the high slot on the power play after a face-off win by John Tavares.
"We're not really in the position we'd like to be in, especially over the course [of] the past couple of weeks, but just to pull off the two points, to see the poise of the group just to keep playing even when the momentum switches," Matthews said. "I think we'd really just like to be more consistent throughout the 60 minutes, especially in that second period there are some things for us to clean up."
Matthews scored into an empty net with 42 seconds left for the 6-4 final. He leads the NHL with 43 goals.
"It's hard not to (think about scoring 50 goals), but I just focus on each game and just try to stay present every day, not get too ahead of myself, just staying focused and try to do whatever I can to help the team in different ways, but obviously I want to score and want to produce," Matthews said.

Jack Campbell made 26 saves for the Maple Leafs (37-16-4), who have won five of seven.
Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves for the Kraken (17-37-5), who have lost three in a row.
"When I look at a 60-minute hockey game, we were incomplete," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "I'm not going to be disingenuous and start picking out little bits and pieces that were good, and there were. There was good stuff in there, but at the end of the day, the bottom line is this: We've got 11 or 12 minutes to go in a hockey game against a team that played last night, playing on a back to back and has shown tired legs in the first 10 minutes of the third period, and we are there with a one-goal lead and we gave that up much too easily. ... We didn't manage the puck, bottom line."
Jaden Schwartz gave the Kraken a 4-3 lead at 5:57 of the third when he deflected a point shot from Jeremy Lauzon.
Matthews put Toronto up 1-0 on the power play at 3:18 of the first period when he took a pass from William Nylander and shot from the left face-off dot.
"He's the best player in the league, that's just my opinion," Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting said of Matthews. "Some people might say it's biased, but in my opinion, he's the best player by far. So good defensively, so good offensively, he's an all-around package, in my opinion."

Carson Soucy tied it 1-1 at 5:21 when he got to a loose puck at the bottom of the right face-off circle.
Tavares gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead at 9:55 on a breakaway.
Nylander made it 3-1 at 5:14 of the second period on the power play.
The Kraken scored twice in 2:29 to tie it. Alexander Wennberg cut it to 3-2 at 9:20 on a 2-on-1 with Marcus Johansson, and Colin Blackwell tied it 3-3 at 11:49 on a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Yanni Gourde, after he intercepted a pass from Nylander.
"We don't want to give up that lead, we've been doing it too much lately, but from that 10-minute point on from the third to the end, I thought we did a great job of just making it hard to get through us, breaking it out cleanly and getting the puck up the ice," Marner said.
"We're never down and out of a game; I think that's the belief in our team, in our locker room and on the bench. When stuff like that happens in games for us, we just get over it, make sure we are ready for the next shift and next opportunity to get on the ice and counter back."
Toronto was 3-for-6 on the power play.
"Penalties hurt going against a power play like that," Soucy said. "It was just a couple mistakes that cost us, we kind of got rolling there in the third, got the lead, and then with these guys, just a couple of mistakes and it's in the back of the net. They've got people who can score, one of the best scorers in the league. Too much time in the box, my (cross-checking) penalty late killed us. It hurts."
NOTES: Soucy's goal was his seventh, matching his NHL career high (2019-20). ... Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza was a healthy scratch. ... Matthews scored his third hat trick of the season and sixth in the NHL. Four Maple Leafs have scored more hat tricks in a season: Darryl Sittler (five in 1980-81), Babe Dye (five in 1924-25; four in 1922-23), Reg Noble (five in 1917-18) and Rick Vaive (four in 1983-84). ... It was Matthews' 11th multigoal game of the season and his 50th in the NHL. Pat LaFontaine (51) is the only United States-born player with more before turning 25.