Matthews has 4 points, Maple Leafs score 7 in win against Rangers

NEW YORK -- Auston Matthews became the NHL's first 20-goal scorer and had his first four-point game of the season in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 7-3 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

Matthews scored twice, his first being his 20th, and had two assists. He has seven goals in the past five games and is tied for the NHL lead with 21 with Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser, who scored a hat trick in a 4-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

"You just feel like you're in a rhythm or just in a flow out there," Matthews said of his hot streak.

Mitchell Marner scored twice and had an assist, and Calle Jarnkrok had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (15-6-5), who have won three of four and extended their point streak to seven games (5-0-2). William Nylanderhad two assists, and Martin Jones made 28 saves in his first start of the season for Toronto, which has earned at least one point in 12 of its past 13 (9-1-3).

"Keeping pressure up ice, keeping pressure in the [offensive] zone, making their best people play defense," Marner said. "We've done that the last couple games pretty well. It's something we knew we needed to be better at and something we have been better at."

Blake Wheeler scored twice, and Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (19-7-1), who have lost three of four. Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves and allowed at least four goals in his third straight start, all losses.

"This is where you learn about yourself and you learn about what it takes to ultimately continue to be successful," Wheeler said. "They're lessons you have to go through throughout the year. I mean, nobody goes through the season unscathed, without having stretches that maybe don't go their way. I think it's a great learning opportunity for our team."

New York scored twice in the last 3:30 of the second period to cut into what was a three-goal lead for Toronto after the first period.

Zibanejad connected on a one-timer for a power-play goal at 16:30 to make it 4-2, and Wheeler scored his second of the game at 18:26 with a short-side shot off the rush from the right circle to cut it to 4-3 entering the third period.

But the Maple Leafs, who were playing the second of a back to back after losing 4-3 in overtime at the New York Islanders on Monday, responded early in the third.

Shesterkin stopped Marner on a 2-on-1 and Jacob Trouba made a sliding block on Tyler Bertuzzi's shot off the rebound, but Erik Gustafsson interfered with Marner on the play, giving the Maple Leafs a power play at 1:22.

Marner gave Toronto a 5-3 lead seven seconds in at 1:29 on a high tip of Morgan Rielly's shot from the point.

"We only had one [power play] in the first but 'Mo' and I were talking, just try to be open for a high tip there," Marner said. "We knew it was possibly there. Then in the third you see us talking and we said, 'Let's try to look for that again.' Lucky enough I was able to find a quiet spot. 'Mo' with a great shot, I got a piece of it and lucky enough it went in."

The Maple Leafs rolled from there, limiting the Rangers chances to get back into the game before Matthews made it 6-3 at 17:11 with his second goal of the game. David Kampf scored an empty-net goal at 18:33 for the 7-3 final.

"It felt like we were a tired team a lot of the night quite honestly, I didn't think we had our legs," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "But we were just encouraging and pushing our guys to dig in, move their feet, close and pressure the puck. If we weren't going to get our chances from that at the very least, we were going to pin them down and keep them far away from our end.

“And then through that we drew some opportunities, had some chances at the net, drew a penalty, which really changed the game with our ability to score as quickly as we did on that power play."

Matthews gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 3:52 of the first period, scoring off a 2-on-1 with Nylander, who carried the puck through four Rangers players to create the odd-man rush. It was a 6-on-5 situation with Jones off the ice for the extra skater because of a delayed penalty.

Conor Timmins made it 2-0 with his first goal of the season 1:15 later at 5:07.

Wheeler cut it to 2-1 with a goal at 5:42 on a shot from the left circle.

Jarnkrok extended it to 3-1 at 15:20 after scoring off a rebound. Marner pushed it to 4-1 just 21 seconds later, connecting off a give-and-go with Matthews.

"Based on the first period, they were better than us," New York coach Peter Laviolette said. "We didn't give ourselves the best chance to win tonight."

NOTES: It was Matthews' 13th career four-point game. He is the second U.S.-born player in NHL history to begin his career with at least eight 20-goal seasons (Patrick Kane had 13 straight from 2007-20). … Rangers forward Artemi Panarin's assist on Zibanejad's goal was his 700th NHL point (232 goals, 468 assists) and extended his home point streak to start the season to 12 games (seven goals, 13 assists). … Trouba got his 300th NHL point (72 goals, 228 assists) with an assist on Wheeler's second goal. … Nylander extended his point streak to six games (one goal, eight assists). ... Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller did not play because of personal reasons.