TORONTO (AP) Auston Matthews scored twice, Ilya Samsonov made 18 saves for his first shutout of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Nashville Predators 4-0 on Saturday night.

Samsonov has 11 NHL shutouts. He got the start after Joseph Woll sprained an ankle Thursday night in a 4-3 victory in Ottawa.

ā€œSome shock,ā€ Samsonov, who watched Matt Murray deal with a string of injuries last season, said of his teammate going down. ā€œNot too fun to see.ā€

David Kampf and Noah Gregor, into an empty net, also scored to help Toronto improve to 14-6-4. William Nylander added two assists, and John Tavares had one for his 998th career point.

ā€œWe played, finally, 60 minutes - full game,ā€ Kampf saod. ā€œEvery line rolling ā€¦ hopefully we can keep it going.ā€

Kevin Lankinen stopped 33 shots for Nashville. The Predators had won three in a row and nine of 11.

ā€œDidnā€™t play very good,ā€ Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. ā€œI donā€™t think any of us played very good.ā€

Kampf opened the scoring with 5:45 left in the second period when he took a pass from Conor Timmins, split two defenders and roofed a shot for his third goal of the season

Matthews doubled that lead with 2:03 left in the period when Lankinen could only get a piece of William Nylanderā€™s pass on a give-and-go off the rush.

Matthews added his 18th of the season with 3:11 left in the game. Gregor added the empty-netter with Toronto killing a penalty with under two minutes to go.

Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe delivered a huge hit on Luke Evangelista in the third and then dropped the gloves with Kiefer Sherwood.

UP NEXT

Predators: At Montreal on Sunday night.

Maple Leafs: At New York Islanders on Monday night.

---

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Copyright 2024 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.