Matthews has goal, 2 assists to power Maple Leafs past Kings

TORONTO -- Auston Matthews scored his first goal of the season and had two assists for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

“I think just a good start, solid throughout, (Anthony) Stolarz made some big saves,” Matthews said. “I thought we defended pretty well and just contributions from all four lines. We were able to roll four lines throughout the game and when you roll them over like that, I think it can make it pretty hard on the opposition.”

Bobby McMann scored twice, William Nylander had a goal and an assist, and Mitch Marner had three assists for the Maple Leafs (3-1-0), who have won three in a row. Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves.

“I thought our special teams were excellent, our goalie was really good,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We had a good first period I thought, got a lead. Second period, they came out and pushed hard early and I thought we regained our poise and our game but in the third, I thought we were just sloppy a little bit.”

Alex Turcotte and Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings (1-1-2), who lost 8-7 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators on Monday. David Rittich allowed four goals on 14 shots before he was replaced by Pheonix Copley midway through the second period, who made 10 saves in relief.

“We broke down and they scored,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “I don’t think they had that many chances, they had good chances. Breakdowns by us for sure. So yeah, it’s a concern any time you don’t win the game and you break down early like we did but here we are, we’ve got a game tomorrow so we will put this one behind us, it’s the only thing we can do.”

McMann put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 at 6:54 of the first period. After Max Domi’s pass bounced off Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, McMann got to the loose puck in the slot and beat Rittich with a snap shot.

Matthews scored his first goal of the season to make it 2-0 at 8:49. He fanned on a wrist shot in the slot, recovered the loose puck, then fired a snap shot past Rittich’s blocker from just inside the left circle.

"You love to see it, he ripped that one," McMann said. "I think it went in and out before anybody even saw it. All the boys are smiling, you love to see that for him because you know there are a lot more coming."

McMann pushed it to 3-0 at 17:12 when he took a lead pass from Nylander and shot blocker side on a breakaway.

“That was (a) perfect (pass),” McMann said. “Right where I wanted it as he usually does. That was a great play and there’s lots more where that came from from him.”

McMann, who was a healthy scratch in Toronto’s first game of the season, has scored three goals in his past three games.

Morgan Rielly made it 4-0 at 7:56 of the second period with a redirection in front off Jake McCabe’s centering pass from the side boards.

“Just the start we got off to tonight was a little disappointing,” Kings forward Trevor Lewis said. “You can see in the second period when we played north-south hockey and have that compete level, we are tough to play against, so we have to make sure we come out and start like that. That east-west stuff is not working for us, so we know what we have to do to be successful. We just all have to buy in and do it.”

The Maple Leafs scored their first power-play goal of the season on their 12th attempt at 18:31 to make it 5-0 when Nylander scored a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

The Kings outshot the Maple Leafs 14-7 in the second period and 25-14 over the final 40 minutes.

Turcotte cut it to 5-1 at 2:42 of the third period when he took a pass from Andre Lee in the slot and beat Stolarz with a snap shot. The assist was Lee’s first NHL point in his fourth game.

Fiala made it 5-2 at 9:03 when he backhanded in a loose puck at the top of the crease.

Tavares backhanded a shot over Copley's glove at the top of the crease on the power play at 17:16 for the 6-2 final.

“It’s always good to get that power play going,” Matthews said. “Obviously it wasn’t great the first couple games, just trying to find it a little bit, so any time you see the puck go in on the power play a couple times, you can take that momentum and just continue to build off it.”

NOTES: Kings defenseman Andreas Englund was -1 in 14:40 in his season debut for the Kings after being a healthy scratch the first three games… Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren played 13:55 in his season debut after being a healthy scratch the first three games.