Matthews extends road point streak to eight, Maple Leafs hold off Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Auston Matthews scored to extend his season-opening road point streak to eight games in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 4-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Matthews put Toronto ahead for good with his 11th goal of the season at 3:47 of the second period to make it 2-1, giving him a point in every road game this season (15 points; seven goals, eight assists), including this 2-2-0 trip for the Maple Leafs.

“It feels good,” the Maple Leafs captain said. “I want to compete and play at this level for the full season and just one day at a time, just continue to put the work in, continue to do what I can to help the team win -- and on both sides of the puck.”

“The most important part is getting wins. I think we left a couple on the table this road trip but obviously feels good to finish on the right note.” 

William Nylander had a goal and an assist, and former Canucks forwards Zack MacEwen and Teddy Blueger also scored for the Maple Leafs (8-6-2), who were coming off consecutive road losses. Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves to improve to 5-1-0 this season.

Brock Boeser and Max Sasson scored, and Leevi Merilainen made 24 saves for the Canucks (3-12-1), who are 1-11-1 in their past 13 games.

“Honestly, I think our team has been playing a lot better hockey as of late,” Boeser said. “It's something that we can build on. We're generating more shots and I think our defensive game is coming along and getting better. You've got to look at the little things, and as long as those are improving, then we’ve got to build off those. So, we got to stick with the process here.”

Nylander put Toronto ahead 1-0 on a breakaway at 1:23 of the first period after defenseman Jamie Oleksiak got caught flat-footed reaching to break up a Toronto breakout pass. Nylander cut across the crease on his forehand before chipping a backhand back up over Merilainen’s glove the other way.

Boeser tied it 1-1 on a power-play breakaway at 10:30, taking a perfect pass from Filip Hronek inside his own zone and skating in alone from the Toronto blue line before getting Stolarz to commit on a fake shot and pulling the puck around the sprawled goalie before lifting it into the open net.

“He made a great pass there,” Boeser said.

The Maple Leafs had chances to retake the lead on consecutive power plays that included 1:08 of 5-on-3, but Merilainen robbed Gavin McKenna on a backdoor chance early in the first power play and made saves off hard Matthews and Darren Raddysh shots to kill the two-man advantage.

Matthews put Toronto ahead 2-1 at 3:47 of the second period on a pretty passing play with Raddyish. Matthews passed from the bottom of the left face-off circle up to Raddyish, who had his stick raised for a one-timer just above the dot, but instead passed back down to Matthews for a sweeping one-touch shot along the ice and under the pads of Merilainen.

Matthews wasn’t expecting to get the puck back. 

“I wasn't honestly,” he said. “So, when (he) gave it back to me, I just thought I'd throw it at the net and see what happens. Really nice heads up play by him to kind of get the goalie moving, and I just tried to sneak it in.”

MacEwen made it 3-1 at 12:34, when his point shot bounced out of Merilainen’s glove, off the back of defenseman Luke Schenn and trickled in.

“We forechecked and we made contact on their D, and then we were quick to support it, and I think when we do that, we do that well,” Toronto coach Jim Hiller said of the difference in the second period. “There are times that we just want to rush and try to score off the rush (and it’s) really difficult to do in the League consistently. So, if you forecheck, you give yourself a chance and I thought we did that as well as we've done it all year in the second.” 

The Maple Leafs outshot the Canucks 13-6 in the second, spending prolonged shifts controlling play in the Vancouver end. 

“In the second period, we kind of took over and hemmed them in,” said Stolarz. “And as you can see, when we do that, we're a hell of a hockey team.”

Sasson pulled the Canucks to 3-2 at 9:27 by chipping a rebound over the right pad of Stolarz in tight after a Brendan Gallagher shot through traffic. 

Blueger, who also had an assist, scored into an empty net on a 2-on-1 pass from Nylander at 18:24 for the 4-2 final. The play started with Stolarz shooting for the empty net, only to have it bounce off a Canucks player to Nylander. 

“You look up and the walls are clogged and you kind of see a little bit of a lane, and you're just trying to hope to get it up,” Stolarz said. “You're just looking to get the puck out of the zone, and we have a good play and a good system with the wingers there, so luckily it went off their guy right to our guys.”

NOTES: Maple Leafs forward Jack Roslovic had one assist to extend his point streak to six games (10 points; three goals, seven assists). … Toronto defenseman Chris Tanev was plus-2 with three hits and three blocked shots playing 19:21 in his first game back from an upper-body injury that caused him out to miss nine games. … Maple Leafs forward Dakota Joshua was plus-1 with five shots and seven hits in 11:00 of ice time in his season debut after recovering from a core injury sustained late last season. … Vancouver center Jacob Quillan had one shot in 11:58 while making his Canucks debut in place of Filip Chytil, who was placed on injured reserve Friday after aggravating a shoulder injury during a 3-2 loss at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.