Maple Leafs win in Auston Matthews' return to Arizona

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Auston Matthews will stay in his native Arizona for Christmas, but he had a chance to open a few presents early in his first NHL game in the desert.
Matthews set up the Toronto Maple Leafs' first goal and Leo Komarov scored two goals in a 4-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Friday.
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves for Toronto (13-12-7), which swept two back-to-back games for first time this season. The Maple Leafs followed a 6-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday with their first win in the second of back-to-back games for the first time in seven tries (1-5-1).

WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Coyotes highlights
Connor Brown and William Nylander also scored for Toronto. Matthews set up Brown's goal 3:04 into the game and was cheered several times by the crowd of 14,377, many of whom wore his No. 34 jersey.
"Coming home and playing where I grew up was a special moment, and to get the two points and the win kind of puts the cherry on top," said Matthews, who grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Matthews' boyhood idol, Coyotes captain Shane Doan, scored his 400th NHL goal in his 1,500th NHL game, but Arizona (11-18-5) lost its fourth straight. The Coyotes had defeated Toronto five straight times and was 11-1-1 over the past 13 games. Mike Smith made 28 saves.
Doan and Matthews met at center ice for the opening faceoff. Matthews was trailing the play when Doan scored No. 400.
"It's an unbelievable accomplishment. I'm happy for him, but happy we got the win as well," Matthews said. "It would have been nice if I wasn't on the ice for that one. He's been so amazing … not only hockey player for this team, but in the community."
Matthews had his best moment early. He deftly kept a Coyotes turnover onside at the Arizona blue line before hitting Brown in stride at 3:04 for his sixth goal and second in as many games.
Toronto capitalized on a Connor Murphy high-sticking penalty 13 seconds in the second period to make it 2-0. Komarov parked himself in front of the net and deflected Jake Gardiner's shot past Smith at 43 seconds for his first goal since Nov. 17.
"It felt good, but it's my job to score goals," said Komarov, who had 19 goals in 2015-16 but has five after 33 games this season. "Last year, a lot of things were bouncing my way. This year is a little bit different."
Arizona made it 2-1 when Doan took a pass from Murphy and put it past Andersen at 19:16 for his first goal in 11 games.
"Hopefully this opens the door and I can get a few more," Doan said. "Obviously this was a special night for the organization and a special for [Matthews] and 1,500 (games) is special too. I wish it didn't take me this long (to get No. 400), but at least I got it."
The Coyotes weren't able to carry the momentum into the third period. They didn't get a shot on goal in an early power play before defenseman Michael Stone lost a pass at the Arizona blue line, giving Komarov a breakaway and he beat Smith between the pads at 6:26 of the third period.
"We talked about how after that goal, hopefully it gives us some juice to get going," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "But a couple of mistakes wound up in the back of our net."
Nylander raced in alone at 11:31 and scored on a backhand shot to make it 4-1.

Goal of the game

Komarov made a great play to get a piece of Gardiner's hard shot right in front of the crease to score on the power play 43 seconds into the second period.

Save of the game

Smith denied Matthews of a goal when he made a right pad save off the rush off a pretty feed from Brown with 6:56 left in the second period.

Unsung performance of the game

Playing with Matthews and Brown, Zach Hyman had an assist on Brown's goal and looked good in more than 18 minutes of ice time.

Highlight of the game

Doan scored No. 400 in his 1,500th game with a big crowd there to honor him. It also put Arizona back in the game with 43.4 seconds left in the second period.

They said it

"It's got to be a big deal for him and his family. He should really enjoy today. It's not often that anybody gets treated like this or a city feels like they do about him." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on Auston Matthews

Need to know

Doan became the 17th player to play in 1,500 NHL games, the 93rd to score 400 goals. He's the first in Winnipeg Jets/Coyotes history to accomplish those feats. … Andersen is 6-0-4 against Arizona.

What's next

Maple Leafs:At the Florida Panthers on Wednesday (7 p.m. SN, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Coyotes: Host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-SW, NHL.TV)