Maple Leafs score eight in win against Avalanche, Matthews has hat trick

TORONTO-- Auston Matthews scored his fourth NHL hat trick for the Toronto Maple Leafs in an 8-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

Matthews has a four-game goal streak, and Toronto has won five in a row.
"It was just a really good effort from everybody," Matthews said. "Our goaltending was unbelievable again. We were playing a really good team at the other end with a lot of really dangerous players and they were going to get their push and opportunities. At times we gave them a little too much space out there, but I thought defensively we did a pretty good job of keeping them to the outside."
John Tavares had a goal and two assists, Michael Bunting had three assists, and Jack Campbell made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (17-6-1), who are 15-2-0 in their past 17.
They won their three previous games in California by a combined 15-4.
"Good preparation coming in, good mindset, and I just liked the way we came out with good energy coming off the West Coast trip," Tavares said. "Sometimes that jet lag can linger around, and especially when we had good success, we still came in tonight with the right attitude and refocused."

Nathan MacKinnon had two assists in his return from injury, and Nazem Kadri scored his 200th NHL goal for the Avalanche (11-7-1), who lost for the second time in nine games.
Jonas Johansson made 33 saves starting in place of Darcy Kuemper, who was scratched after an injury at the morning skate.
"He wasn't good," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of Johansson. "Wasn't good. Our habits in our game were not good to start and a lot of loop in our game. We were getting beat off the walls all over the place in our zone. Countless scoring chances against starting in the first period. So that's just a determination by them and a lack of commitment by us."
William Nylander gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 4:31 of the first period off a pass from Tavares. Jason Spezza made it 2-0 at 7:57 when he jammed a loose puck in the goal crease. Matthews took a pass from Mitchell Marner at the top of the crease and spun to make it 3-0 at 14:24.
"I liked our start for sure," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We felt we needed to start quickly, and obviously playing with a lead is important always, but especially against this team. I don't think this was an 8-3 game though, we played against a really good team that had some adversity before the game with their goaltending and I think we capitalized on that."

Samuel Girard one-timed a pass in the high slot from MacKinnon to make it 3-1 at 19:58. McKinnon missed eight games with a lower-body injury. Kadri brought the Avalanche to within 3-2 with a backhand from the slot to make it 3-2 at 11:57 of the second period.
Travis Dermott gave Toronto a 4-2 lead at 12:44 with his first of the season. Tavares jammed a rebound at 16:28 to make it 5-2.
Matthews took a pass from Marner in the slot for a 6-2 lead 44 seconds into the third period. He completed the hat trick at 8:41 when he shot from the left face-off dot to make it 7-2. He has scored six goals during his goal streak and has scored 13 this season.
"Just Auston being Auston," Campbell said. "Just spectacular, and he does it at both sides of the rink. It's great to see him get rewarded with three goals tonight. They've got a lot of great players over there, but as soon as they scored we kind of put our foot on the gas and did not give them much life."
Engvall made it 8-2 at 10:08.
Kadri deflected a shot at 16:36 to make it 8-3. The forward, who played his first 10 NHL seasons for the Maple Leafs, played his 687th NHL game.
"We just didn't play good enough tonight," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "When you get in a hole like that, it's tough. We'll come back strong tomorrow (at the Montreal Canadiens)."
Jett Alexander, a goalie with the University of Toronto, was the emergency backup for the Avalanche in the first period. Justus Annunen, who was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League, took over as the backup to start the second period after arriving at the arena.
Goalie Michael Hutchinson, who was recalled from Toronto of the AHL late in the afternoon, backed up Campbell because Joseph Woll was unavailable due to stiffness after practice Tuesday.
NOTES: Kadri scored 161 goals in 561 games for the Maple Leafs. He has scored 39 in 126 games for the Avalanche. He was traded prior to the 2019-20 season. ... The Avalanche played their 1,000th regular-season road game since relocating from the Quebec Nordiques for the 1995-96 season. ... It was the first time Toronto scored eight in a game since Dec. 23, 2019 when it defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 8-6. ... Bunting extended his point streak to five games (two goals, five assists), which ties Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings for the longest by a rookie this season.