TAMPA, Fla (AP) — Auston Matthews had three goals to tie the franchise single-season record for goals with 54, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 on Monday night.
Matthews, who also had an assist and extended his goal streak to six games. completed his seventh career hat trick — and fourth this season — from the slot to give Toronto a 5-2 lead at 7:08 of the third. The center equaled Rick Vaive’s mark set in 1981-82.
Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists, giving him 22 points (six goals, 16 assists) during a 10-game point streak. He also recorded his sixth straight multi-point game as the Maple Leafs took a two-point lead over Tampa Bay for second place in the Atlantic Division. Marner scored his goal at 11:24 of the third.
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Pierre Engvall and Alexander Kerfoot had the other Toronto goals. Jack Campbell had 32 saves.
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Tampa Bay got goals from Nikita Kucherov and Jan Rutta, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots.
Matthews put Toronto up 2-1 with a wrist shot from the left circle 1:46 into the second.
After Rutta scored four minutes later, the Maple Leafs took a 4-2 advantage on Matthews’ low-slot redirection with 10:03 left in the second and Kerfoot’s in-close goal 2:28 later.
Engvall opened the scoring on Toronto’s first shot 1:59 into the game.
Kucherov tied it at 1 from the left circle right off a faceoff win by Steven Stamkos at 6:24 of the first.
Stamkos had two assists. He extended his point streak to a season-high seven games (six assists, 11 points).
NUMBERS
Matthews (253) moved past Bob Pulford (251) into ninth place on Toronto’s all-time goals list. He has a point in each of his last 13 games. … Marner joined Matthews (seven games, 2018-19) as the only Toronto players to have streaks of six or more multi-point games. … Kucherov has two goals and 10 points during a five-game point streak.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Maple Leafs RW William Nylander (illness) didn’t play. … Lightning D Ryan McDonagh took part in the morning skate but sat out this sixth consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: At Florida on Tuesday night.
Lightning: At Washington on Wednesday night.
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