Matthews gets 10th goal, Maple Leafs beat Oilers 4-2

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Auston Matthews helped get the Toronto Maple Leafs' three-game trip off to a solid start.

Auston Matthews scored his 10th goal of the season as the Maple Leafs got just their second road win of the season, beating the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Tuesday night.

"I think we stuck to the game plan the whole 60 minutes and we didn't get away from it too much," Matthews said. "We got pucks in deep and kind of just played heavy down there, grinding them down low. They're a very good rush team, so we wanted to eliminate that from them. So I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight."

James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto, which has won two straight and improved to 2-5-4 on the road. Frederik Andersen stopped 28 shots.

"It probably wasn't our prettiest win, but we're very happy to kick off this road trip with two points," Toronto assistant captain Morgan Rielly said. "I think that when you look at our team, I think that speed is one thing that stands out, so when you play teams like Edmonton with the amount of speed that they had and the amount of skill that they have, it's important that we have our legs with us, we're skating and we're keeping up with them."

Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist and Andrej Sekera also scored for the Oilers, who have lost three in a row. Cam Talbot gave up four goals on 14 shots over the first two periods, and Jonas Gustavsson stopped all nine shots he faced in the third.

"It's frustrating, the highs and lows," said McDavid, who had his ninth multi-point game of the season. "It's stupid mistakes that are costing us. We just have to bear down."

Toronto took a 1-0 lead not long after Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins rang a shot off the post. William Nylander made a great pass on a rush and Matthews directed the puck past Talbot at 5:45 of the first.

Andersen made 12 saves in the opening period, including a huge glove stop to rob Leon Draisaitl in tight.

Less than 3 minutes into the second, van Riemsdyk was left completely alone in front of the Oilers net and had three whacks at the puck before getting it past Talbot for his 10th.

Sekera beat Andersen on a long shot from the point 2:01 later to cut the deficit in half.

Kadri restored the two-goal lead at 6:00. Leo Komarov picked a puck off Oilers defender Matt Benning and got it across to Kadri, who became the third Toronto player to get his 10th goal of the season in the game.

Hyman extended Toronto's lead to 4-1 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the middle period, swatting in a puck that bounced around in front of the net.

Oilers forward Milan Lucic said his team once again fell into the trap of reacting rather than creating.

"It's almost like we were kind of waiting for the first thing to happen rather than going out there and making it happen," he said. "That is still something we are learning as a young group. No matter whom you are playing, you have to get up for the games. It starts here in this dressing room and creating that emotion before the puck."

The Oilers cut into the lead four minutes into the third as McDavid made the most of a partial breakaway, scoring his 11th goal and league-leading 31st point.

NOTES: It was the second and final meeting between the Oilers and Maple Leafs this season. Toronto won the first contest 3-2 in overtime at the beginning of November.

UP NEXT

Toronto: At Calgary on Wednesday night.

Oilers: At Winnipeg on Thursday night.