Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 52nd goal and Max Domi scored twice as the Toronto Maple Leafs cruised to their season-high sixth straight win, 7-3 over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
It was the 19th multi-goal game of Domi’s career. Pontus Holmberg had a goal and an assist, Mitch Marner added two assists and Jake McCabe, David Kampf and John Tavares also scored for Toronto, which jumped out to a 4-0 first-period lead.
It was the 10th goal in the last five games for Matthews while Marner has 15 assists over his last six games. Martin Jones finished with 23 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have scored 34 goals during their six-game win streak.
Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and an assist, Shea Theodore had two assists and Michael Amadio and William Karlsson also scored for Vegas, which suffered its fourth consecutive home loss. Logan Thompson finished with 18 saves after starter Adin Hill was pulled at the 14:20 mark of the first period after allowing three goals on 20 shots.
The Golden Knights allowed 23 shots on goal in the first period while falling behind 4-0.
McCabe started the scoring at the 10:00 mark with a slap shot that caromed off the blocker of Hill and then off the hip of defenseman Alec Martinez and into the net.
Kampf followed 70 seconds when he intercepted a Vegas clearing pass and then skated in and wrapped a shot around Hill’s right pad.
Tavares made it 3-0 with a wrist shot past Hill’s glove side for his 17th goal of the season, sending Hill, who dropped his fourth straight start, to the bench. It took just 1:51 for Toronto to make it 4-0 when Domi put in a rebound of a William Nylander shot past Thompson’s blocker side.
Vegas cut it to 4-1 early in the second period when Karlsson ripped a wrist shot from the top of the circle past Jones’ glove side.
Domi put Toronto back up by four goals at the 11:44 mark with a breakaway goal after a Vegas turnover at its own blue line. Holmberg made it 6-1 a few minutes later when he roofed a wrist shot following a Karlsson giveaway.
Vegas closed to 6-3 with goals by Marchessault and Amadio in a 26-second span early in the third period, forcing Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe to call a timeout. A few minutes later, Paul Cotter hit the crossbar with a shot and Theodore hit the right post 28 seconds later with a slap shot.
Matthews made it 7-3 when he redirected Holmberg’s pass into the slot past Thompson’s blocker side.
–Field Level Media
