Matthews, Maple Leafs hold off Oilers in fourth straight win

EDMONTON -- Auston Matthews broke a tie with a power-play goal at 13:37 of the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won their fourth straight game, 4-3 against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday.

Matthews scored for the fourth straight game on a shot from the left face-off circle to give Toronto a 4-3 lead. It was his fifth of the season.
Jason Spezza had a goal and assist for the Maple Leafs (7-2-0), who have won the first three of their four-game road trip. Frederik Andersen made 26 saves.
"We got the win, which is all that matters," Matthews said. "Obviously a lot of disruptive flow; we're taking too many penalties right now. Special teams came up big, couple of big penalty kills, a couple of big power-play goals for us and sometimes that's the way the game goes. Special teams got to come through and obviously we squeaked out with this one, but obviously some guys came up with some big plays on both ends for us tonight and 'Freddie' was a brick wall as well."

Leon Draisaitl scored two goals, and Connor McDavid had two assists for the Oilers (3-6-0), who were 2-for-7 on the power play and have lost three of four. Mikko Koskinen made 23 saves.
Edmonton will host Toronto again Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN).
"I didn't like our first two periods at all, especially our first," McDavid said. "I thought our second period we did an all right job of just settling the game down. We found a way to hang around and I thought the third period was pretty good minus a couple of penalties and some PK goals against. Lots of power plays both ways and kind of a weird game, but I thought our game wasn't where it needed to be at all."
Spezza scored his first of the season with a backhand shot from the slot at 9:29 of the first period shortly after Koskinen turned the puck over to Travis Boyd behind the net to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.
"I think there is definitely a belief that is growing within our group," Spezza said. "I feel like we can still do better when we have leads. We've had lots of leads and given a few up but have been resilient and been gritty and find ways to win at the end.
"Winning breads confidence and we're starting to believe that we can win every night and that's a good feeling for a team, but we still feel there's a little ways to go to lock things down better. But it's definitely a step in the right direction."
William Nylander made it 2-0 at 18:22 of the first when he converted a cross-crease pass from John Tavares just as a holding penalty to Oilers forward Kyle Turris expired.
Draisaitl scored on a two-man advantage at 18:11 of the second period, one-timing a cross-ice pass from McDavid.
He tied it 2-2 at 7:00 of the third period with another power-play goal following a centering pass from McDavid.

But Oilers forward Josh Archibald took a hooking penalty 14 seconds later, and Wayne Simmonds scored for a third straight game to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead at 7:56 of the third.
"We had enough chances to win that game tonight, but you tempt fate when you give a good power play opportunities; they're going to score," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "You've got to find ways to win and find ways not to lose. That's what bothers me; we're making mistakes that are taking away from our chance to win. Those are the ones that bother you."
Zack Kassian tied it 3-3 at 11:12 with his first goal of the season on a rebound in front after a shot by Turris.
Five of Toronto's seven wins have been one-goal games.
"I like the way that we've found ways to come out on the positive side of it when it counts the most," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. " … We give up the lead and we bounce right back and make sure we finish the job. That's kind of been the theme.
"I think the thing I like most of all, for the most part we've defended really well as a team. Not perfect, [but] we've defended hard. The guys are working hard and have really significantly cut down on the high danger chances and odd-man rushes and the players have been really committed to that. It's been far from perfect; we have a lot of areas to grow. We're not even close to being the team I think that we can be and the team that we would need to be. But a lot of positive of things have gotten us to be 7-2. I think the greatest news of all is that none of the games have been perfect and there's lots of room for growth."