Matthews has 2 more goals, Maple Leafs defeat Blue Jackets 

COLUMBUS -- Auston Matthews scored twice to extend his personal goal streak to seven games, and also had an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Matthews, who leads the NHL with 28 goals, has scored 12 times during his streak. He was out for Toronto’s 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 16 because of illness.

“I’m just trying to attack, shoot the puck and utilize my shot,” Matthews said. “Trying to get in open space and just staying focused out there, present, taking one shift at a time and not getting too carried away with results.”

William Nylander scored and had two assists to extend his point streak to 11 games, and John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (17-8-6), who had lost two straight and four of six (2-2-2). Mitchell Marner had two assists, and Martin Jones made 27 saves.

Nylander has 14 points (four goals, 14 assists) during his streak.

Justin Danforth scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 26 saves for the Blue Jackets (11-18-6), who lost their second straight after alternating wins and losses in their past seven games.

“We played a pretty good hockey game, but they played very strong defensively,” Columbus defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “They needed it; we knew what happened to them in Buffalo. They were going to come back. At the end of the day, they scored on their chances and we didn’t, but we certainly had them.”

Columbus forward Sean Kuraly sustained an abdominal injury and collapsed while heading down the tunnel to the locker room with 19 seconds left in the first period after being sandwiched in a check between Matthews and Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe behind the Maple Leafs’ net.

While the injury did not appear serious, according to the Blue Jackets, he was taken to a hospital for further evaluation.

The remainder of the period was suspended after his teammates and coaches frantically began waving for medical personnel from across the ice, even throwing a towel to get the attention of the officials to stop play.

Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said after the game there was no update on Kuraly.

“It was a scary moment,” Vincent said.

Matthews gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 8:20 of the first period. After Columbus forward Dmitri Voronkov’s giveaway, Marner circled the net and passed to Matthews in the right circle for a one-timer.

“Once we started to play north, we were a much better team,” Vincent said. “What we're going to learn from that game is how we're going to manage the puck against a team like Toronto.”

Danforth tied it 1-1 at 22 seconds of the second period on a partial breakaway set up by Johnny Gaudreau.

Tavares put the Maple Leafs back ahead 2-1 at 2:58 during a 4-on-4 with a spin move in the left circle and a shot under the bar.

“I had some room to attack the net,” Tavares said. “I was happy to see it go in.”

Matthews made it 3-1 at 8:21 with a power-play goal, another one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Marner.

“When he gets on these hot streaks and he gets these multigoal games and he puts these streaks together, it’s so impressive,” Tavares said of Matthews. “Because you know teams are fully game-planning against him and trying to limit his opportunities.”

Nylander scored a short-handed goal at 11:51 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

Toronto was coming off a 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

“Every two points is critical,” Tavares said. “But certainly, with the way we performed the other night, we just wanted to get back to executing and playing to the standard we have. It wasn’t the greatest game for us by any means, but we defended much better, just had more patience to our game and our offense, and obviously we got big goals at big times.”

NOTES: Matthews (30 games) became the first player with at least 27 goals through his first 30 games of the season since Jaromir Jagr had 30 in 1996-97 for the Pittsburgh Penguins; Frank Mahovlich (1960-61: 27 goals in 30 games) is the other Maple Leafs player to accomplish the feat.  … Gaudreau has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak.  … Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson had one shot on goal and one block in 19:17 of ice time in his return after missing 15 games with an oblique injury.