Foligno scores 1st hat trick, Wild hold off Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Marcus Foligno scored his first NHL hat trick, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

“It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you’re finishing,” said Foligno, who had one goal in his first 36 games before scoring five in his past four. “It was just getting through some injuries and finding my game at a good time. It wasn’t a great start, just a lot of weird play and couldn’t get the rhythm of my game going. I just feel a lot better now.”

Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and had an assist, and Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist for the Wild (28-13-9), who have won two in a row after going 0-2-1 during a three-game homestand. Kirill Kaprizov, Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber each had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves.

“We’re spending a lot of time in the offensive zone and doing a great job because if we made a mistake there, they’re so tired they just chip it in and go for a change and we could go straight back to attacking,” Gustavsson said.

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist, and John Tavares and Nicholas Robertson scored for the Maple Leafs (24-17-8), who had won seven straight at home, and are 9-2-3 in their past 14 games.

Joseph Woll allowed five goals on 29 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by Dennis Hildeby, who made eight saves in relief.

“We didn’t play well enough,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “That’s it. Mistakes.

“We made too many mistakes. Line change goal, two power play goals against, we just weren’t detailed enough in certain areas and it cost us the hockey game.”

The Wild went up 1-0 at 4:45 of the first period on the power play when Tarasenko took a cross-slot pass from Hartman at the top of the crease and shot past Woll’s blocker.

Hartman made it 2-0 at 10:29. He received a pass from Mats Zuccarello at the side of the net and stepped into the slot to jam it between Woll’s pads.

Tavares sustained a cut to his face at 18:06, which resulted in a double minor for high-sticking on Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

Tavares cut the deficit to 2-1 during the ensuing power play at 18:24, finishing Matthew Knies' pass from below the goal line with a snap shot from the slot.

Foligno put the Wild up 3-1 at 6:53 of the second period. Following a face-off win by Danila Yurov in the left face-off circle, Foligno skated to the right circle and tipped Faber's wrist shot over Woll's right shoulder.

“That first tip was unbelievable, that’s a big-league tip,” Faber said. “That’s impossible to save. He played an awesome game. If he would have had zero goals, he would have played an awesome game too. He brings so much to the table every night, just the wear and tear he puts on other teams, it’s obviously a great guy to have on your side.”

Tarasenko scored his second at 8:24 to make it 4-1 when he took a pass from Hughes in stride into the offensive zone and buried a wrist shot blocker side from the slot.

“Our pace wasn’t there,” Tavares said. “They executed well, they skated well. We didn’t skate as well. We made too many mistakes that put us in a tough spot. I thought we fought hard in the third and made a bit of a game of it but when you don’t have it at times or when the game is just not coming in rhythm or we feel we are a step behind, we have to do a better job keeping the puck out of our net, staying with it and keeping the game tight.”

Foligno increased the lead to 5-1 on the power play at 19:14. Faber sent a wrist shot from the blue line that Foligno got a piece of for his second goal of the period.

Robertson cut it to 5-2 at 6:27 of the third period. Nicolas Roy found a loose puck during a scrum in front and his shot deflected off Robertson before dropping into the net.

Matthews brought the Maple Leafs to within 5-3 at 15:02. He took a stretch pass from Max Domi and skated into the slot before going forehand-backhand to tuck the puck around the left pad of Gustavsson for his third goal in as many games.

Foligno completed the hat trick at 17:22 with an empty-net goal after taking a pass from Tarasenko for the 6-3 final.

“I’m really happy for him,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “You go through a stretch that he went through, it’s tough and it wears on you but the thing I respect most when he went through that process was that he was still a leader, still played hard and he was vocal and he was being himself even though he wasn’t getting rewarded on the scoresheet.”

Foligno’s dad Mike, who played 129 games with Toronto from 1990-94, was in attendance, which Marcus said made the accomplishment even more meaningful.

“I’m more in shock that I got a hat trick, let alone one goal so I wasn’t thinking about the extracurricular stuff at the time but it’s special to get one in front of him for sure,” Foligno said.

NOTES: The Wild played without forwards Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson and defensemen Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian. … Matthews’ goal was his 769th career point, moving him past Borje Salming (768) for sole possession of fourth place on the Maple Leafs' all-time points list.