Maple Leafs vs. Canucks: Auston Matthews Pushes Road Point Streak to Eight Games as Ex-Canucks Pile On

Two former Canucks came back to Rogers Arena on Halloween dressed as the ghosts of rosters past. Zack MacEwen's point shot popped out of a goalie's glove and off a defenseman's back for what became the winning goal, Teddy Blueger sealed it into an empty net, and Auston Matthews kept his season-opening road point streak alive at eight games.

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Saturday. William Nylander had a goal and an assist, Matthews scored his team-leading 11th goal, Blueger finished with a goal and an assist, and Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves while picking up an assist of his own. Toronto snapped a two-game losing streak and finished its four-game road trip with a split.

A Breakaway Trade, Then a Leafs Takeover

Nylander needed 83 seconds to get things going. Vancouver defenseman Jamie Oleksiak reached for a Toronto breakout pass and came up empty, and Nylander was gone. He carried it across the front of the net and went forehand to backhand, tucking it high over Leevi Merilainen's glove. It was his 10th goal of the season, and the Maple Leafs said it was the 42nd game-opening goal of his career, passing Frank Mahovlich (41) for eighth most in franchise history.

Vancouver's answer came with a little style. With Brandon Duhaime in the box for tripping, Filip Hronek hit Brock Boeser with a long pass from inside the Canucks' zone, and Boeser broke in alone on a power-play breakaway. He faked the shot, Stolarz went down, and Boeser went around him and finished into the open net at 10:30. That was Boeser's fifth of the season and it tied the game 1-1.

Toronto then got the kind of opportunity that should change a game. Drew O'Connor and Oleksiak took penalties 52 seconds apart, giving the Maple Leafs 1:08 of 5-on-3 time. Merilainen refused to cooperate. First he robbed a Leafs forward cutting to the back door, then he absorbed blasts from Matthews and Darren Raddysh while Toronto worked the two-man advantage. Toronto went 0-for-2 on the night.

The Leafs finally broke through at 3:47 of the second, and it was gorgeous. Matthews and Raddysh played catch: Matthews fed Raddysh above the left circle, Raddysh faked the one-timer and gave it right back, and Matthews snapped it low under Merilainen's pads before the goalie could reset. That made it 2-1.

Then came MacEwen's goal at 12:34, which will not be making any highlight reels for its beauty. MacEwen fired from the point, Merilainen could not hold it, and the loose puck caromed off the back of Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn and dribbled over the line. Ugly goals count the same, and this one turned out to matter.

Brendan Gallagher threw a shot through a crowd, and Max Sasson was there to lift the rebound over Stolarz at 9:27 of the third, cutting it to 3-2. The Canucks pushed, but Blueger closed it out at 18:24, finishing a 2-on-1 feed from Nylander into an empty net.

Matthews Is Chasing Ghosts of His Own

Matthews' goal extended his season-opening road point streak to eight games, which the Maple Leafs said ties the third-longest in franchise history. Only Babe Dye in 1923-24 and Harry Cameron in 1921-22 went longer, at nine games apiece.

He was also a force on the dot, winning 14 of 22 faceoffs as Toronto controlled 61.1 percent of the draws.

Nylander did a bit of everything: the early goal, the assist on the clincher and 19:43 of ice time. Jack Roslovic picked up the second assist on the Matthews goal, and the team said his 16 points are the most of any player on a new team this season.

Stolarz deserves credit, too. He made 26 saves on 28 shots and, according to the team, picked up his third assist of the season on Blueger's empty-netter. Goalies with three assists by Halloween are a fun little cult.

On the back end, Jake McCabe blocked five shots in 23:19, part of a Leafs group that blocked 21 to Vancouver's 13.

The Turning Point

The 5-on-3 that went nowhere was Vancouver's best moment, and the MacEwen bounce was its worst. With the score 2-1 and the Canucks still hanging around, a fluky goal off their own defenseman gave Toronto a two-goal cushion. Sasson's goal in the third proved how much it mattered: without MacEwen's bounce, that rebound would have tied the game.

Stats That Matter

• 33-21: Toronto's edge on faceoffs, led by Matthews at 14-8.
• 28-28: Shots on goal. The difference was finishing and one very friendly bounce.
• 31-26: The Leafs won the hit count, too.
• 1-for-4: Vancouver's power play. The team said Toronto has now allowed a power-play goal on the road in four straight games.
• 16: Toronto's all-time wins on Halloween, the most of any NHL team, per the Maple Leafs.

What It Means

The Maple Leafs are 8-6-2 with 18 points and 4-3-1 on the road after back-to-back losses in Calgary and Seattle. According to the team, this was their first regulation win in Vancouver since a 4-1 victory on Dec. 10, 2019, which tells you how weird this building has been for them. Toronto hosts Utah on Tuesday.

The Canucks fell to 3-12-1 with seven points and 1-6-0 at home. NHL.com noted they are 1-11-1 in their last 13 games. Hronek logged 26:57 and set up Boeser's goal, and Merilainen made 24 saves, but Vancouver's two goals came from a power-play breakaway and a third-period rebound, and a 28-28 shot count was not enough to change the result. Vancouver hosts Anaheim on Tuesday.

Closing Take

Toronto has now made a habit of treating Halloween as a holiday it owns. The Leafs came west, answered Boeser's breakaway, killed the Canucks' momentum with an ugly goal and handed Vancouver another loss in a season that already feels like a horror franchise that keeps cranking out sequels. For the Canucks, the scariest costume in the building was the standings.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details and team notes from the Associated Press, NHL.com and the Toronto Maple Leafs. No postgame quotes were available at publication.