John Tavares scores twice to fuel Leafs past Red Wings

John Tavares scored two goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Friday night.

Mitch Marner added a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who have won the first two of a four-game homestand. Morgan Rielly had two assists.

Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.

Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings, who had won their two previous games and were trying for their second three-game winning streak of the season.

Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 17 shots.

Toronto’s Nicholas Robertson had a goal disallowed at 2:01 of the first period because of goaltender interference.

Detroit’s J.T. Compher hit the crossbar with a shot at 5:57 of the first.

Marner scored at 11:12 of the first period on a power play to extend his points streak to seven games. He carried the puck into the Detroit end and knocked in the rebound after William Nylander’s shot. Michael Rasmussen was serving an interference penalty.

Larkin scored his ninth goal of the season on a shot from the left circle at 9:10 of the second. Tavares was off for hooking. Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat had the assists.

Tavares scored his sixth of the season at 11:01 of the second with a 22-foot wrist shot from the left circle on a power play. Detroit was down a player because it was penalized for having too many men on the ice.

It was Toronto’s fifth power-play goal in the past two games.

Detroit came close to scoring on a wraparound at 15:21 of the third period but Stolarz emerged from the scramble with the puck in his bare hand after he had lost his blocker.

Tavares scored his seventh goal of the season on an empty-netter at 18:30 of the third.

Toronto put Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) on injured reserve retroactive to Sunday. He also did not play on Tuesday when Toronto defeated the Boston Bruins 4-0.

–Field Level Media