Auston Matthews scores twice as Maple Leafs lose to Devils

Jesper Bratt scored his second goal of the game with 1:14 left and the New Jersey Devils beat Toronto 6-5 on Thursday night, scoring Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews' 67th and 68th NHL goals.

Matthews is tied for the NHL's most goals since Mario Lemieux's 69 in 1995-96.

Bratt also had an assist, Timo Meyer had two goals and an assist, Erik Haula and Nolan Foote also scored for New Jersey, and Jake Allen stopped 27 shots. Luke Hughes had two assists.

John Tavares also scored twice for Toronto. David Kampf added a goal, Ilya Samsonov made 14 saves.

Matthews' 67th goal of the season in the first period was his 366th career goal, moving him ahead of Dave Keon for third on the franchise's all-time list.

Keon, who played for the Maple Leafs in the 60s and 70s, spent 15 seasons in Toronto, scoring 365 goals in 1,062 games.

Matthews, who is in his eighth season with the club and has 559 appearances in charge, is now behind only Darryl Sittler, who has 389 career goals for the Leafs, and Mats Sundin, who finished with 420 goals.

His first-period tally was also his 50th straight goal of the season, the first player to achieve the feat since Timu Selanne did it in 1992-93.

Down 3-2 after a wild and sloppy first, Matthews scored his second of the night and 68th of the campaign at 7:59 with an “MVP!” Rain fell from the stands at Scotiabank Arena.

The goal — his ninth in his last seven games — was the sniper's 274th all-time, passing Mats Sundin for the top spot in franchise history.

With the teams tied at 4, Matthews drew a penalty in the third, and the Devils pulled away when Bratt hit Samsonov with his 26th of the game at 8:57.

Tavares tied things up again with 4:47 left when he buried his second of the night and 26 of the campaign. But the Devils answered with 1:14 to play when Brett was caught on a 27-yard rush.

The Leafs got a late power play for a 6-on-4 advantage, but couldn't find the range.

Matthews has a chance to reach the 70-goal mark in the Maple Leafs' final home game of the season on Saturday night against Detroit. Otherwise, Toronto will close out the season next week with back-to-back games against the Florida Panthers and Thunder.

Toronto moved five points behind Florida for second place in the Atlantic Division and home ice in the opening round of the playoffs.

Sportsnet files were used in this report