Auston Matthews delivered his third hat trick of the season, bringing his NHL-leading goal total to 43 as the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to defeat the Seattle Kraken 6-4 on Tuesday night.
Mitch Marner scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and both William Nylander and John Tavares added a goal and an assist for Toronto. Jack Campbell made 26 saves for the Leafs.
T.J. Brodie and Michael Bunting contributed two assists each, and Marner extended his point streak to eight games with an assist.
For Seattle, Colin Blackwell had a goal and an assist, while Carson Soucy, Alex Wennberg, and Jaden Schwartz also found the net. Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves for the Kraken, who are now 1-9-1 in their last 11 games.
Seattle scored twice in the second period to tie the game at 3-3. Schwartz then tipped his seventh goal of the season past Campbell at 5:57 of the third period. The Maple Leafs, however, have allowed four or more goals in eight of their last ten games.
The Leafs responded at 9:03 when Matthews scored his second of the game off a pass from Bunting, who had been denied by Grubauer moments earlier.
Toronto then went on the power play, and Marner scored his 22nd goal, threading the puck between Grubauer’s pads just 40 seconds after a Tavares faceoff win.
Matthews completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal, his sixth career hat trick, with 41.8 seconds remaining in regulation.
Coming off Monday’s 5-4 road victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets and playing their third game in four nights, the Maple Leafs opened the scoring at 3:18 of the first period when Matthews fired his 41st goal past Grubauer on Toronto’s top-ranked power play.
Seattle tied it at 5:21 when Soucy fired his seventh goal over Campbell off a broken play in front.
Toronto regained the lead at 9:55 when Tavares scored his 19th goal off Brodie and Pierre Engvall’s passes.
The Maple Leafs extended their lead to 3-1 with another power-play goal at 5:14 of the second period when Nylander scored his 22nd through Grubauer’s pads against Seattle’s 28th-ranked penalty kill.
Seattle cut the deficit to one at 9:20 when Wennberg finished a give-and-go on a 2-on-1 rush with Marcus Johansson, scoring his seventh goal of the season.
The Kraken tied it just 2:29 later when Nylander turned the puck over at the offensive blue line during a Toronto power play. Seattle capitalized on the 3-on-1 break, with Blackwell finishing off a pass from Yanni Gourde for his eighth goal.
Game Notes
Toronto winger Wayne Simmonds was honored before the puck drop for playing in the 1,000th regular-season game of his career on Saturday. Leafs winger Ondrej Kase (upper-body injury) returned to the lineup after missing four games. Jared McCann signed a five-year, $25 million contract extension with Seattle on Tuesday. Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol was an assistant coach for Toronto during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.
Up Next
- Seattle: At Ottawa Senators on Thursday in the fourth game of a five-game trip.
- Toronto: Host Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.
