Matthews has hat trick, Maple Leafs rally from down 3 to top Jets

TORONTO -- Auston Matthews scored his 14th NHL hat trick, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 6-5 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

Matthews, who also had an assist, made it 6-5 at 15:38 of the third period. He backhanded a shot from the slot with Jets goalie Eric Comrie out of position after he mishandled the puck at the left side of the net. The goal was Matthews’ 419th in the NHL, leaving him one from tying Mats Sundin for the most in Toronto history.

“That was great, always fun to win but a game that’s really back and forth,” said Matthews, the Maple Leafs captain. “We got down early, stuck with it, I don’t think we were necessarily playing bad but catch a couple bad breaks, but we just didn’t give up. We kept pushing shift by shift and clawed our way back into the game. That’s a big one.”

Matias Maccelli and Oliver Ekman-Larsson each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (19-15-6), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games. Joseph Woll allowed four goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Dennis Hildeby, who made 22 saves in relief.

“I’m not pulling [Woll] because it’s all on him. I made a change just to try and change the momentum more than anything,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “… I don’t like pulling goalies but I just thought it was the right move at the time.”

Mark Scheifele scored twice and had an assist, and Gabriel Vilardi had a goal and an assist for the Jets (15-20-4), who lost 2-1 at the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday and are 0-5-3 in their past eight. Comrie made 24 saves in his first start since Dec. 11.

“We finally score some goals and then implode the other way,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “That has kind of been our group right now, trying to find that consistency in all areas, both offensively and defensively. Players being consistent, not just shift to shift but period to period. If you see a shift that was awesome, guys doing all the right things, then the next time that same group went out there it was the opposite. That is a tough one. A tough one for our group.”

Hildeby preserved the lead with five seconds left, stretching to make a blocker save at the right post on Scheifele, who shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle.

“An incredible save,” Scheifele said. “Desperation. That was pretty incredible.”

Maple Leafs defenseman Troy Stecher credited Hildeby for giving his team a chance to recover.

“‘Beast’ was awesome, especially at the end there. That was a huge, huge big-time save,” Stecher said. “But it’s the NHL, man. You expect your goalies to come in when there is a change like that. I can’t imagine it’s easy, you’d have to ask him, but he gave us a fighting chance. The boys are really pumped with him.”

The Jets went up 1-0 at 14:09 of the first period when Vilardi took a pass from Scheifele and shot between Woll’s pads from above the right hash marks.

Dylan DeMelo made it 2-0 at 17:38 when his slap shot from the point was inadvertently deflected by Matthews.

Matthews cut it to 2-1 at 1:34 of the second period, chipping a backhanded redirection over Comrie’s glove at the side of the net on a give-and-go with Max Domi.

Alex Iafallo pushed the lead to 3-1 at 2:11 when he spun and put a backhand along the ice and past Woll’s right pad from the slot.

Scheifele then made it 4-1 at 5:24. He took a pass from Vilardi, who was behind the net, and shot from the top of the crease.

“We did some good things in the first and couldn’t capitalize,” Ekman-Larsson said. “Maybe not the way we want to do things but it worked out tonight. Coming back in that game was huge for us.”

Ekman-Larsson cut it to 4-2 at 11:04, using Vilardi as a screen when he took a pass from Scott Laughton and scored from the high slot.

Matthews made it 4-3 on the power play at 19:57 when he shot from the slot after taking a pass from Morgan Rielly.

“That power-play goal was a bit of a stinger to cut it to 4-3 with [three] seconds left,” Scheifele said.

The Maple Leafs tied it 4-4 at 6:30 of the third. Matthew Knies sent a no-look pass to Maccelli from the right boards, and Maccelli shot high to the blocker side from the right face-off dot.

Scheifele responded by giving the Jets a 5-4 lead with a power-play goal at 8:50 when he shot over Hildeby’s blocker from the right dot.

Stecher tied it 5-5 at 13:13. He took a pass from Bobby McMann and scored with a shot from the top of the left face-off circle that went off Comrie’s right pad and through the five-hole.

“That’s a stinky one,” Scheifele said off the loss. “Yeah, not many words for that one. That stung. You know, didn’t put a full 60 minutes together. We had good shifts, we had bad shifts, we had bad plays, good plays. That’s a tough one.”

NOTES: Matthews passed Pat LaFontaine for the most hat tricks by a United States-born player in NHL history. He also tied Charlie Conacher for the third-most hat tricks in Maple Leafs history, trailing Darryl Sittler (18) and Babe Dye (16). And with his 17th four-point game, Matthews tied Mitch Marner for the second most in Toronto history. Sittler is the leader with 26. … Maple Leafs forward John Tavares had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (six points; one goal, five assists). … Knies had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (seven points; four goals, three assists). He had a three-game goal streak end (four goals). … DeMelo ended a 29-game goal drought.