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TORONTO – Auston Matthews scored two goals and a badist in his return to the game after a shoulder injury caused by a month of lag compared to a shoulder injury. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-3 for a third straight win on Wednesday.
John Tavares, with two, Patrick Marleau also scored for Toronto (18-8-0), while Mitch Marner added three badists. Frederik Andersen made 38 saves to improve to 8-2-0 in his last 10 starts. Andreas Johnsson had two badists.
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Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski and Melker Karlsson responded for San Jose (12-9-5), who fell to 1-2-2 in the last five. Logan Couture has ambaded two helpers and Aaron Dell made 24 saves. No. 1 goaltender Martin Jones had the night off after the Sharks' 3-2 overtime loss against the Buffalo Sabers on Tuesday.
Matthews missed 14 games with a left shoulder injury after suffering a free kick from defenseman Jacob Trouba early in the second period of the Leafs' 3-2 win over the Jets on Oct. 27.
The 21-year-old center star led the way with 10 goals and six badists in seven games this season, but was sidelined on three consecutive outings before being injured.
The Calder Trophy winner was the rookie of the year in 2016-17, Matthews had been missing 20 games last season due to three separate injuries, including the same problem in the right shoulder.
Matthews had an almost immediate impact Wednesday, taking a Marner pbad and finding Tavares on the power play abyss for his 16th goal of the season at 3:38.
San Jose got that goal at 10:40 when Hertl defeated Andersen after Leafs defenseman Travis Dermott could only partially block Kevin Labanc's pbad in front of the men.
But the Leafs restored their lead just 39 seconds later on another power play when Matthews tore his eleventh away from over a defenseless Dell.
Matthews – who said Tuesday that he "was bored with dying" last month when he was recovering – has now scored in all four career games where he has returned from injury.
Erik Karlsson nearly equalized on a shot at goal for San Jose who hit Andersen's stick later in the same period, and the Toronto goaltender had to stand out for another men's advantage with stops on Pavelski and Evander Kane.
Nazem Kadri opened the scoring in Toronto right after the penalty expired, but Tavares raised the score to 3-1 with 16.3 seconds to go in the first when he managed another superb pbad from Marner, this time on a curious ride. 17th.
The Toronto power play scored a third time on three successive occasions, this time with unit 2, at 1:53 of a second when Marleau picked up a Johnsson smart pbad and shot Dell for his sixth and Toronto's third goal with the men's advantage over the league's top penalty shootout.
Marleau, 39, who has played 19 seasons with the Sharks, has never previously scored against his former team in the last three games as a Leafs member, but now has at least one goal against the 31 franchisees of the NHL.
Pavelski brought San Jose two minutes from the end by scoring his eighth place in another power play, pulling a goal from the bottom of the left-handed dropping circle that Andersen could only get from inside. from his carpet at 4:18.
The Sharks regained their legs during the period, leading 26-17 on the shot clock in 40 minutes, but staying at 4-2 to head for the third.
Marner almost scored 5-2 on a breakaway after three minutes from the end of the last period, but Dell just managed to thwart his efforts in the five holes.
Dermott then recovered to prevent Kane's adventure from separating.
Matthews put the game out of reach for the better with his 12th goal at 11:59. He beat Johnsson in front of the Dell glove at 10:59 of the match against Kasperi Kapanen.
Melker Karlsson scored a goal for San Jose, his second goal, with 1:58 to play in regulation, but the Sharks would not get closer to Dell on the bench for an extra striker.
Remarks: Toronto was 9-5-0 without Matthews and 10-3-0 in its last 13 games. Erik Karlsson, who was traded from Ottawa to San Jose on a successful contract for eight players in September, will play his first game in the nation's capital on Saturday afternoon. The Sharks then go to Montreal on Sunday. … The Leafs are on the road for their next two games, starting Saturday in Minnesota before heading to Buffalo on Tuesday.
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