Jack Hughes scores hat trick, Devils top Maple Leafs for 5th straight win

TORONTO -- Jack Hughes scored a hat trick for the New Jersey Devils to help them to their fifth straight win, 5-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

The center has six goals during a three-game goal streak.

“There’s games where you are going to have looks and games where obviously you are not going to have much,” said Hughes, who had six shots on goal, “so tonight was a night where I was in good spots, the puck was coming to me and [I] kind of had good looks at the net.”

Jesper Bratt had three assists, and Jake Allen made 23 saves for the Devils (5-1-0).

“That’s about as textbook as you are looking for, on the road especially,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said.

John Tavares had a goal and an assist, and William Nylander had two assists for the Maple Leafs (3-3-1), who are 0-1-1 in their past two games. Anthony Stolarz made 30 saves.

“It’s a little bit of the same over the last couple games,” Toronto captain Auston Matthews said. “Sloppy at times and then this roller coaster of consistency. I think that’s the biggest piece.”

The Maple Leafs went up 1-0 at 6:36 of the first period when Tavares swatted the rebound of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s point shot out of the air at the top of the goal crease.

Hughes tied it 1-1 at 1:27 of the second period when he shot past Stolarz’s glove from the slot with Ondrej Palat at the top of the crease screening the goalie.

“[Palat] doesn’t get a point on that, but that puck isn’t going in the net if he is not there,” Hughes said. “He does a lot of things for me and Jesper Bratt away from the puck and the hard-nosed things that really make us successful as a line, so a lot of credit goes to him for sure.”

The Maple Leafs challenged for goaltender interference but were unsuccessful.

“We felt he was in the blue paint and our goalie couldn’t get position,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “That’s why we challenged. It’s always tricky, 50-50 a lot of times. It is what it is.”

Cody Glass then put the Devils up 2-1 at 3:20 on the resulting power play. After Timo Meier’s shot was blocked, Glass shook off Jake McCabe and shot from just below the right hash marks.

Brenden Dillon made it 3-1 at 4:54 when he took a pass from Luke Glendening and shot from the high slot on a 4-on-1.

“Reads for sure,” Berube said. “Our defense is just standing in there, jumping in there, not reading what’s coming at them. We are late at times with our reloads and one of the biggest things is turnovers. We’ve got to be smarter. Our defense has to be smarter, they have to read the play. They can’t be going all out. They’re a quick team, a great transition team. They blow out the zone. First period was fine, second period we didn’t follow it up and shot ourselves in the foot.”

Matias Maccelli cut it to 3-2 at 7:03. It was his first goal with the Maple Leafs in his seventh game since being acquired in a trade with the Utah Mammoth on June 30. Maccelli took a pass from Nylander on a 2-on-1 and scored into an open net after Allen slid out of position.

Hughes stretched the lead to 4-2 at 16:17 with a slap shot to the short side from the left face-off circle.

“It was pretty wide open there in the second period and our guys took advantage of it,” Keefe said. “There was a partial breakaway, 2-on-1s, 3-on-1s, 4-on-1s, all these types of chances that our guys capitalized on.”

Stolarz said he felt he should have stopped the shot.

“I thought it was a really good effort by the boys tonight,” Stolarz said. “They’re a skilled team, and for me personally that fourth goal is one you want back. You want to go into the third period and give the guys a fighting chance and be able to keep it a one-goal game, and at that point anything can happen. I loved the effort tonight. You look at the backcheck, blocking shots, getting in lanes -- I thought we did a lot of good things tonight.”

Hughes shot into an empty net with 30 seconds left in the third period to complete the hat trick and make it a 5-2 final.

NOTES: Maple Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev (upper body) left the game at 1:53 of the second after taking a hit to the head in an inadvertent collision with Devils forward Dawson Mercer. When asked if Tanev would miss time, Berube said, “Possibly.” … Tavares scored career goal No. 498 and is two from becoming the 49th NHL player to reach 500. … Nylander extended his point streak to four games (nine points; one goal, eight assists). … Bratt increased his season-opening point streak to six games (10 points; three goals, seven assists) and his assist streak to four games (six assists). … Hughes passed Stephane Richer and Claude Lemieux to move into fifth on the Devils’ multigoal games list (27).