Auston Matthews scores twice as Toronto downs Nashville 3-2
TORONTO (AP) — Auston Matthews scored twice early in the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs erased an early deficit to win their third in a row, 3-2 over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.
William Nylander also scored for Toronto, which got 22 saves from Joseph Woll.
Mitch Marner chipped in three assists as the Leafs won for the 10th time in 12 games.
Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Jankowski scored for Nashville, which came in having lost three straight 3-2 overtime decisions. Juuse Saros stopped 25 shots for the Predators who have now lost five in a row.
Nashville opened the scoring in the first when Marchessault took advantage of a strange bounce before Matthews replied with goals 1:58 apart in the third to give him three in three games since returning from an upper-body injury that kept the captain out of the lineup nearly a month.
Marchessault joined Artemi Panarin and Mats Zuccarello as the third active undrafted player to record 500 points.
Takeaways
Leafs: Marner was one of 17 players named as Canada rounded out its roster for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off. Toronto defenseman Jani Hakanpaa was added to Finland’s squad.
Predators: Veteran center Gustav Nyquist was named to Sweden’s team for the February tournament in Montreal and Boston.
Key moment
Matthews scored his second goal of the night on a sequence where he lost control of the puck after deking past Nyquist, but still fooled Saros for his eighth of the season.
Key stat
The Predators entered Wednesday last in the league with an average of 2.32 goals per game despite making a big splash in free agency with the additions of Marchessault, Steven Stamkos and defenseman Brady Skjei.
Up next
Nashville continues a three-game road trip Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Toronto hosts the Washington Capitals on Friday night to wrap up a three-game homestand.
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