Matthews, Samsonov lead Maple Leafs past Jets, 4-1

TORONTO — 

Auston Matthews scored twice early in the second period, Ilya Samosonov made 37 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday night.

Mitch Marner and Mark Giordano, into the empty net, also scored for Toronto, and Michael Bunting added two assists.

Kyle Connor scored for Winnipeg, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 shots.

The Jets, who entered as the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, carried much of the play in the first period — outshooting Toronto 16-6 in a period where Samsonov had to be on his toes — but the Maple Leafs had the best chance when Matthews pinged a shot off Hellebuyck’s crossbar on a breakaway.

Last season’s 60-goal man eventually found the range eight seconds into the middle period when he stepped around Mark Scheifele and beat Hellebuyck five-hole off the rush.

The Maple Leafs made it 2-0 less than four minutes later when Winnipeg got caught puck-watching and Bunting found Matthews in front to rip his 24th.

Coming off a 4-1 loss in Montreal on Tuesday night, the Jets went to the power play with less than seven minutes left in the second, but Marner fired his 17th past Hellebuyck on a short-handed 2-on-1 as the winger built on his franchise record by registering at least a point in 20 straight home games.

UP NEXT

Jets: At Ottawa on Saturday night.

Maple Leafs: At Montreal on Saturday night.

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