Facts and Figures: Tavares, Marner power surging Maple Leafs

John Tavares (two goals) and Mitchell Marner (one goal, two assists) helped the Toronto Maple Leafs to their fifth consecutive victory, 4-2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. Toronto owns the NHL's longest active winning streak after ending Columbus' five-game winning streak and seven-game point streak.

Tavares has seven goals and four assists during a six-game point streak; he has multiple points in each of his past five games. Tavares is two shy of becoming the first player selected in the 2009 NHL Draft to score 300 goals and will try to reach that milestone Saturday when he faces his former team, the New York Islanders, for the first time (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN1, MSG+, NHL.TV). Tavares scored 272 goals during nine seasons with the Islanders before signing a seven-year, $77 million contract with the Maple Leafs on July 1.
The 28-year-old center has at least one point in 14 of 18 games at Scotiabank Arena this season, and he has nine goals and seven assists during an active 11-game home point streak. Since 1943-44, there have been seven instances of a Maple Leafs player with a home point streak of at least 12 consecutive games; Mats Sundin (2007-08) was the last to do it.

Marner, a third-year forward, leads Toronto with 53 points (13 goals, 40 assists). He became the 27th player in NHL history and the first Toronto player to have at least 40 assists in each of his first three NHL seasons. He's the sixth active player to achieve the feat, joining forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Islanders continue NHL's comeback trend

The Islanders won for the fifth time in six games, scoring five unanswered goals in a 6-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Barclays Center on Friday.
New York's victory marked the 77th time this season that a team won a game in which it trailed by at least two goals at any point. That's tied for the second-most through 582 games in NHL history. There were also 77 in 1986-87, two fewer than the previous season.

It was also the 260th time this season that a team won after trailing at any point during the game, matching 2005-06 for the most through 582 games in NHL history. New York's win was the 105th third-period comeback victory in 2018-19, the fourth-most through 582 games in NHL history (109 in 2014-15, 107 in 2013-14 and 106 in 2012-13).
Center Mathew Barzal scored two of New York's four third-period goals, helping the Islanders rally for their fourth multigoal comeback win of the season. He became the sixth player in team history to have at least 10 multipoint performances in his first 120 NHL games.

Tatar helps Canadiens win third straight

Forward Tomas Tatar scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, to help the Montreal Canadiens defeat the Florida Panthers 5-3 at a sold-out BB&T Center for their third consecutive win.
Tatar scored 35 seconds into the game to help Montreal take a quick 2-0 lead, then broke a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal 8:54 into the third period. The Canadiens are 3-1-0 on a six-game trip surrounding the Christmas break entering their game at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV).