Matthews scores 40th in Maple Leafs victory against Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 40th goal of the season when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 at Nationwide Arena on Monday.

Matthews, who has three goals in his past two games, has scored at least 40 in four of his six NHL seasons.
The Blue Jackets rallied from down 3-0 to tie it 3-3 in the third period before Alexander Kerfoot and Michael Bunting put Toronto back in front 5-3.
"The start that we had was really positive," Matthews said. "We let them back in the game, but I thought our bench and our team as a whole just stayed poised and confident and we just kept playing and scored a couple of big goals to give ourselves a lead."
Mitchell Marner and Bunting each had a goal and an assist, and Petr Mrazek made 31 saves for the Maple Leafs (36-16-4), who had lost two straight.

Elvis Merzlikins made 28 saves for the Blue Jackets (28-26-3), who lost their third home game in four nights.
"I know where we're at here (in the standings)," Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. "We need the two points, but it was a step for us tonight against a really good team to stay in it and work ourselves back into the game. Unfortunately, they got a couple there in the third."
Ilya Mikheyev gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 8:06 of the first period, putting in a loose puck in front, and Marner increased the lead to 2-0 at 14:01.
Matthews made it 3-0 at 17:06. He joined the Darryl Sittler (1975-76, 1977-78, 1979-80 and 1980-81) as the second Maple Leafs player to have four 40-goal seasons.
Sean Kuraly cut the lead to 3-1 at 1:45 of the second period with a deflection of Max Domi's shot from above the right circle.
"That's not how you want to start against a team like that," Domi said. "They were hungry. But focusing on us, we knew we had to come out of the gates flying in the second to bounce back and outwork them, match their intensity at the very least, and I thought we did a good job of that. We'll take that as a positive."
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 20th goal at 18:49 during a 4-on-4 to cut it to 3-2, and Jack Roslovic tied it 3-3 at 2:28 of the third period with a power-play goal.

"I liked a lot about our game," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "I don't like the start of the second period, that goal they scored early. That's a little downer on the game for me, but obviously, our first period was as good as we can ask for. You want to follow and build on it, but that's the disappointing part of the game."
After Kerfoot and Bunting restored Toronto's lead, Patrik Laine scored for Columbus with the extra skater at 19:12 for the 5-4 final.
Bunting leads NHL rookies in goals (20) and points (45).
"I think our line's meshed pretty well," Bunting said of playing with Matthews and Marner. "We've built some good chemistry and I've had a little bit of success offensively, and I'm just trying to keep rolling with them."
NOTES: Bunting extended his point streak to five games (two goals, seven assists). … Bjorkstrand has scored five points (four goals, one assist) in a four-game point streak. ... Laine has scored 16 goals in his past 16 games and has six points (three goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak. … Blue Jackets defenseman Jake Bean returned after missing 14 games with a lower-body injury. He was minus-1 with three hits in 12:42 of ice time. … Kuraly's goal was his ninth this season, an NHL career high. He scored eight for the Boston Bruins in 2018-19.