By Canadian Press

Cannon Fodder: Matthews scores twice, sets up two others as Leafs thump Panthers

Dec 20, 2018 | 7:00 PM

TORONTO — Roberto Luongo joked on Twitter after Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner made celebrity cameo appearances in a production of “The Nutcracker” that Toronto’s dynamic duo deserved the night off Thursday.

No such luck for the veteran goalie and his Florida teammates.

Matthews scored twice and set up two other goals for his second four-point game of the season as the Maple Leafs thumped the Panthers 6-1.

John Tavares also found the back the net on two occasions, Morgan Rielly had four assists for his second four-point night of 2018-19, and Marner chipped in with a goal and two assists as part of the onslaught for Toronto (23-10-2).

“We started on time,” said Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, whose team has outscored opponents 13-3 over its last two games. “We did things the way you should.”

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Nazem Kadri rounded out the scoring with a goal and an assist, while Frederik Andersen made 25 saves.

Matthews notched the 18th two-goal game of his young career and now has 19 goals in just 21 games this season after missing a month with a shoulder injury.

That’s a 62-goal pace in 68 games.

“At times he makes it look easy — a lot of the time he makes it look easy — and this league definitely is not easy,” Tavares said of the 21-year-old Matthews. “To do it at this level that consistently is a testament to his skill set and his attention to detail.

“No question he’s got one of the best shots in the game.”

Both Matthews and Rielly, the first defenceman to reach 40 points in the NHL this season, recorded the third four-point games of their careers.

Toronto’s power play, meanwhile, snapped an ugly 1-for-25 stretch with a perfect 3-for-3 showing.

“We hadn’t been good enough lately,” Matthews said. “Even against these guys last Saturday in Florida (a 4-3 overtime loss) we were terrible.

“It’s good to get back on track.”

Henrik Borgstrom replied for Florida (13-14-6). Luongo stopped 17 of 22 shots before getting the hook for the Panthers. Former Leafs goalie James Riemer finished with three saves in relief after getting a nice hand from the crowd when he stepped into the visitors net.

“After about the first 10 minutes, it was just a good hockey team playing a team that didn’t look very good,” Florida head coach Bob Boughner said. “We had too many passengers.

“If you don’t have 20 guys all playing the same way, you can get blown out.”

After the teams traded early chances, Toronto went ahead 1-0 with 1:43 left in the first period as its dormant power-play unit clicked.

Marner drew all four Florida penalty killers towards him before whipping a cross-ice pass to Matthews, who made no mistake into the open side for his 18th of the season and a team-high seventh with the man advantage.

Marner’s assist was also the 125th of his career to pass Vincent Damphousse for the most by a Leafs player before age 22.

Matthews and Marner hooked up for a different type of performance a night earlier with their cameo as Cannon Dolls in The National Ballet of Canada’s “The Nutcracker” in front of a packed house not far from Scotiabank Arena, prompting Luongo’s playful tweet.

Coming off a 2-2-1 road trip — the Leafs did come back to Toronto twice during that stretch — the home side nearly went ahead 2-0 early in the second, but Frederik Gauthier rang a shot off the post.

Matthews put Toronto up by two when he took another cross-ice feed, this time from Rielly, and buried his 19th off the camera inside Luongo’s net at 3:50.

The star centre’s 18 two-goal games ranks him second behind only Alex Ovechkin’s 19 since Matthews entered the league in 2016-17.

Matthews has just one hat trick in his career, which came in a four-goal outburst against Ottawa in his first NHL game.

Kadri had a goal taken off the board five minutes later after it was ruled he kicked the puck over the line, but the Leafs centre eventually got his ninth, converting a pass from Connor Brown on a 2-on-1.

Matthews had a chance at the hat trick on a power play early in the third, but Luongo stopped his shot before Taveres shovelled home his 22nd at 2:38.

Tavares then added his 23rd on some horrendous Florida defending off a pass from Marner at 5:41.

Borgstrom got a consolation goal, his first, for the Panthers on a power play at 10:28 before Marner banked a shot off a defender on another man advantage at 15:14 for his 10th to cap the 3-for-3 night.

“We were dry there for a bit,” Rielly said of Toronto’s power play. “You’ve just got to work through it. It was a just a matter of time.”

Notes: The Leafs host the New York Rangers on Saturday and then Detroit on Sunday before the Christmas break. … Toronto winger Zach Hyman sat out with an ankle injury suffered during Tuesday’s 7-2 victory in New Jersey that will see him miss three weeks. Leafs defenceman Igor Ozhiganov was a late scratch with an illness. Martin Marincin took his place after sitting out the last 17 games. 

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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press