Auston Matthews gets Leafs going in win over Blackhawks

Auston Matthews scored for the first time since returning from an injury and the Toronto Maple Leafs went on to defeat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on Monday night.

John Tavares, Fraser Minten and Matthew Knies also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won two in a row. Mitch Marner added two assists and Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves.

Lukas Reichel scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost three in a row. Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom stopped 18 shots.

Marner nearly got the Maple Leafs on the board right away, when he hit the crossbar with a 39-foot shot at 1:39 of the first period.

Toronto broke through when Matthews scored his sixth goal of the season at 15:35 of the first period. William Nylander set up the play, taking an outlet pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and weaving down the right wing before making a saucer pass to an unchecked Matthews in the slot.

It was Matthews' first goal since missing nine games with an upper-body injury. He had two assists upon making his return on Saturday, a 5-3 road win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Chicago had a five-on-three power play for 28 seconds starting at 3:39 of the second period, but Stolarz was solid.

The Maple Leafs extended the lead on the 11th goal of the season by John Tavares at 11:59 of the second period. Tavares spun around to take a random 34-foot shot from the right circle. The puck deflected off a defender and found its way into the net.

Reichel jammed in his third goal of the season from in front of the net at 3:26 of the third period.

Toronto regained the two-goal margin when Minten scored 21 seconds later with his second goal of the season on a 17-foot shot after the puck bounced to him off the end boards.

Chicago went on a power play at 14:31 of the third period but did not get a shot on goal.

Knies scored into an empty net at 18:15 of the third for his 10th goal.

Toronto's Jake McCabe (upper-body injury) did not play.

--Field Level Media