Matthew Knies had two goals and an assist and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Monday night.
Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists and Auston Matthews added a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who have won three in a row. William Nylander also scored and Joseph Woll stopped 27 shots for Toronto.
Nick Paul scored two goals and Darren Raddysh had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who had won their two previous games. Victor Hedman added two assists.
Jonas Johansson made 23 saves for the Lightning in the opener of a four-game road trip.
The Maple Leafs have won the first three games this season between the teams.
Matthews opened the scoring at 4:06 of the first period to extend his scoring streak to four games (five goals, one assist). He picked up a pass from Knies in the neutral zone and his shot from the left circle squeezed between Johansson’s pads. Oliver Ekman-Larsson also earned an assist.
Nylander scored on a breakaway at 13:45 of the second period after a Lightning turnover in the Toronto zone. Morgan Rielly’s pass sprung Nylander. It was Toronto’s ninth straight unanswered goal starting with seven in a row in a 7-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
The Lightning trimmed the lead to one goal when Paul deflected a shot by Raddysh from the right barrier at 16:07 of the second period.
Knies restored the two-goal lead when he scored from the slot on a pass from Marner at 19:37 of the second period.
Raddysh cut the lead to one again with a goal at 8:07 of the third period with assists from Hedman and Nikita Kucherov.
Knies scored with a close-range wrist shot at 10:09 of the third on a power play on a pass from Marner. Emil Lilleberg was serving a tripping penalty.
Tampa Bay answered with a power-play goal by Paul at 12:05 with David Kampf off for tripping.
Marner scored into an empty net at 18:55.
–Field Level Media
