Maple Leafs score 4 straight in 3rd, rally past Penguins

TORONTO -- Bobby McMann broke a tie at 13:43 of the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

McMann got to a rebound in the slot after Nicholas Robertson had cut to the net from the corner and shot past Tristan Jarry’s glove to give Toronto the 4-3 lead.

McMann had not had a point in his previous eight games.

“I think guys are always working hard. I think it’s just working the right way and being engaged in the game, and maybe we weren’t engaged right off the hop there," McMann said. "We were kind of battling back all the way through, maybe second-guessing it and not sticking to the game plan.

“It felt good (to score). If we could get one in there late in the game that was the most important thing was to win the game. Anytime I can contribute and we can win the game, that’s the most fun.”

William Nylander had two goals and an assist, and Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (7-5-1), who have won four of their past five. Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves.

“What upsets me is we come out in the second period down 2-0, we think we are going to make a push and we didn’t,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They controlled the whole period with the puck. … We just got back to playing our game [in the third], and obviously ‘Willy,’ Matthews and (Matthew) Knies’ line went out and did what they are capable of doing. And our goalie was good.”

Ben Kindel scored twice for his first multigoal game in the NHL for the Penguins (8-4-2), who have lost two in a row. Jarry made 16 saves.

“We felt the first two periods is the way we want to be playing,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “It has to be a full 60-minutes, though, and we got away from it there. It was a number of different factors. When they took momentum, we weren’t able to at least pause the momentum. They kept coming and then we were back on our heels and you can’t play the game that way.”

The Penguins outshot the Maple Leafs 25-8 through two periods, but Toronto scored three times in a 3:24 span in the third period to tie it.

“I thought we were defending well with everybody pretty consistently set and we were eliminating their chances,” Muse said. “That’s more in line with how we want to play, but it’s got to be a full game of that. We put ourselves in a good position to go into the third period, and that’s a good hockey team, they have dangerous players. You can’t take multiple shifts off. I don’t want to say off, but we got away from how we want to play.”

Matthews started Toronto's comeback by cutting it to 3-1 at 3:31 of the third period. He got behind Sidney Crosby at the blue line, took a lead pass from Jake McCabe and shot between Jarry’s pads from the slot on a breakaway.

Nylander, who returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury, made it 3-2 at 4:47. He corralled a loose puck out of midair in the slot and backhanded a shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle that hit off the post and banked in off Jarry’s back.

Nylander then tied it 3-3 at 6:55 with a one-timer off a pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson at the blue line.

“We just simplified our game, got after it,” Nylander said. “We played terrible for two periods, so we just tried to do something. It was unacceptable (in the first two periods), there’s nothing more to say. Just our compete level was not there. Losing every battle, losing every puck. That’s what it comes down to.”

Erik Karlsson put the Penguins up 1-0 at 13:08 of the first period. He took a cross-ice pass from Crosby and shot over Stolarz's left shoulder from the right face-off dot for his first goal of the season.

Pittsburgh made it 2-0 at 17:59. Stolarz attempted to make a glove save on Ryan Shea, but he mishandled the shot, which led to a rebound in midair. Morgan Rielly tried to swat it away, but the puck ended up banking off Kindel and into the net.

Kindel pushed it to 3-0 at 11:50 of the second period on the power play. The 18-year-old forward, who was selected with the No. 11 pick by the Penguins in the 2025 NHL Draft, took a cross-ice pass from Evgeni Malkin and shot blocker side from the left dot on Stolarz, who was screened by Brandon Carlo.

“You have to understand you are going to get down in this League at times by a couple goals, bounces, whatever happens,” Berube said. “It’s the response that’s needed. We got that response in the third, I don’t understand why we never got it right away in the second. That’s the frustrating part. It’s all mental for me.”

NOTES: Penguins forward Noel Acciari left the game at 5:43 of the first period with an upper-body injury. Muse had no update after the game. … Kindel’s two goals marked the first multigoal game by a Penguins teenager since Olli Maatta (two goals) on March 6, 2014. … With two assists, Rielly (522 career points) passed Tomas Kaberle (520) for second among defensemen in points in Maple Leafs history.