Marcus Foligno scored his first NHL career hat trick, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 6-3 victory over the Maple Leafs on Monday night.
Home cooking added little comfort for Toronto. Fresh off a four-game road trip, the Leafs looked flat in their return to the Scotiabank Arena.
Minnesota jumped out to an early lead. Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring for the Wild with his 10th of the season, a power-play goal at 4:45. The veteran winger tapped home a Ryan Hartman feed past Joseph Woll to make it 1-0.
The Wild increased their lead to 2-0 on a Hartman goal at 10:29. A failed Jake McCabe clearing attempt allowed Minnesota to cycle the puck, with Hartman eventually ending up alone in front of Woll and beating him to the post for his 14th of the year.
The Leafs cut into the Wild’s lead with a power-play goal toward the end of the period. With just over a minute and a half left in the first, John Tavares one-timed a Mathew Knies pass from the slot to beat Flip Gustavsson to make it 2-1 going into the dressing room.
The late goal did not provide any momentum for the Leafs. Minnesota dominated the second period, scoring three unanswered goals. Foligno netted his first of the night at 6:53, a deflection from the face-off dot to make it 3-1.
Less than two minutes later, Tarasenko added his second of the night, breaking past the Leafs’ defense and beating Woll with a wrist shot from between the circles. Then, with under a minute left in the period, Foligno scored his second of the game and the Wild’s second power-play goal, off another deflection, this time in front of the net, to stretch the lead to 5-1.
Woll was replaced for the third period, and the Leafs managed a bit of a rally. Nicholas Robertson scored his 11th goal of the season at 6:27 to make it 5-2, and Auston Matthews continued his torrid goal-scoring pace with his 25th at 15:02 to cut the margin to 5-3. But that was as close as Toronto would get. Gustavsson shut the door, and Foligno added an empty-net goal to make the final 6-3.
Next up, Toronto hosts the Red Wings on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
