Matthews, Marner score in Maple Leafs shutout of Predators

TORONTO-- Jack Campbell made 24 saves for his third shutout of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Nashville Predators 3-0 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

"It feels great, especially with Nashville coming in having played extremely well right now," Campbell said. "Our team played so great in front of me, the shot blocks at the end and the whole game really speaks for itself. I was really lucky to play behind the blue guys tonight, we were great."
Auston Matthews scored for the Maple Leafs (11-5-1), who have won nine of 10.
"It was definitely one of [our most complete games of the season]," Matthews said. "The third period especially, just locking it down playing with good structure and all four lines weren't giving them much, and then to score a couple goals late to put the game away, I thought overall it was a really good game, but I thought that third period, we stepped up and shut the door."
Juuse Saros made 31 saves for the Predators (9-6-1), who had won three in a row.
"I don't think it was our best game, I thought they outplayed us for some pretty long portions," Nashville defenseman Mark Borowiecki said. "They tilted the ice on us in the second period a little bit for sure, you could see it. They have so much offensive talent and power, but to our credit I think we defended hard. We were competitive the whole game, we worked, it certainly wasn't for a lack of effort."
Matthews made it 1-0 at 7:37 of the first period when he one-timed a cross ice pass from William Nylander just below the left face-off dot on the power play.
"It was just good puck movement, Willie made a really nice pass to me so I was able to find an opening and just snuck it through," Matthew said of his seventh goal this season.
Matthews had a goal disallowed at 4:35 of the second period after it was determined the puck never crossed the goal line.

David Kampf scored for a second straight game to make it 2-0 at 16:04 of the third period. Mitchell Marner scored into an empty net with 23 seconds left for the 3-0 final.
"That's a good team, and I think we tried to make an effort to get back in the game, and unfortunately it was kind of a [lousy] goal, that second one," Saros said.
"It was a good test for us and we will look at some video to see where we can be a little bit better. We're not satisfied tonight. We kind of know what we are capable of."
Nashville had won four of five and eight of 10 after losing four of its first five.
"I thought Saros played well, I liked our effort and our compete, but some of our puck execution was not at the level it needed to be at," Predators coach John Hynes said. "We turned some pucks over, which gave them some momentum, and then some decisions in the offensive zone turning pucks over gave them some easy breakouts, so we've got to clean that up."

Campbell played in his 100th NHL game. His third shutout of the season set his NHL single-season high.
"I can't say enough good things about Jack, honestly," Matthews said. "He's been so good ever since he's got here. I could go on and on, but just his attitude every day, he comes to the rink with a smile on his face and competes for us every night. That's all you can really ask for from your goalie. We always have full confidence when he's in the net because we know he's going to work and compete for us, and he was unbelievable tonight."
NOTE: Campbell is 49-33-9 having played for the Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars since the 2013-14 season. He is 28-8-4 since being traded to Toronto by Los Angeles on Feb. 6, 2020.