COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Toronto Maple Leafs turned a milestone night for their captain into a rout, scoring four consecutive goals in the second period to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-2 on Tuesday for their second road victory of the season.
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist in his 700th NHL game. His goal was the 436th of his career, tying Pavel Bure for the sixth most by a player through the milestone contest in league history, behind only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Brett Hull and Jari Kurri. It was also the 68th game-winning goal of his career.
Easton Cowan and Jack Roslovic each finished with a goal and two assists, William Nylander added a goal and an assist, and Morgan Rielly recorded a season-high three assists. Kirill Marchenko opened Toronto's scoring with a power-play goal against his former team, and Marshall Rifai scored the first goal of his NHL career late in the third period. Cowan's shorthanded goal made him the first Maple Leafs player aged 21 or younger to score one since Mitch Marner in February 2019.
Columbus scored first through Jake Christiansen and cut the lead to 5-2 on Charlie Coyle's third-period goal, but the Blue Jackets have now been outscored 15-3 in second periods through eight games and have lost four of their past five. Starting goaltender Jet Greaves was pulled in the second period after Toronto's fifth goal. Anthony Stolarz earned his third win of the season for Toronto.
The win came at a cost: defenceman Jake McCabe left in the first period after taking a high stick to the face and did not return, with head coach Jim Hiller saying afterwards he was held out as a precaution. Toronto, 5-4-2, hosts the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
