TORONTO (AP) Logan Couture had two goals and an assist and Adin Hill made 30 saves in San Jose's 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night, keeping the Sharks perfect in the young season.
Timo Meier, Jonathan Dahlen and Erik Karlsson provided the rest of the offense for San Jose (4-0-0), which played for the third time in four nights, including a 2-1 victory Thursday over the Ottawa Senators.
Jason Spezza, Ondrej Kase and John Tavares scored for Toronto (2-2-1). Michael Hutchinson stopped 26 shots for the Leafs, who have scored just 11 times in the first five games.
The Leafs' Auston Matthews, who returned from offseason wrist surgery in Monday's 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Rangers, is without a point through two outings.
After a sleepy opening period, the offensive floodgates in the second period. Couture scored his second goal of the season at 2:31 after winning an offensive zone draw when he sent home a Marc-Edouard Vlasic wraparound attempt.
Spezza, who lost the faceoff on Couture's icebreaker, replied with his second of the year 56 seconds later on a scramble in front of Hill.
But the Sharks responded in just 17 seconds, with Meier firing a shot that found its way through Hutchinson (who got the call with Jack Campbell scheduled to start Saturday and Petr Mrazek out with a groin injury).
Kase evened it up for Toronto once again at 10:24 when he blocked a shot by Tomas Hertl and raced in all alone. The Leafs winger beat Hill with a move to the backhand before crashing into referee Wes McCauley, but both got up unscathed.
The visitors took a lead for a third time at 11:55 when Karlsson blasted his second upstairs on Hutchinson, who made his first NHL start since April 4.
San Jose stretched its advantage to 4-2 just 25 seconds into the third when Dahlen took a pass from Couture and fired five-hole on Hutchinson for his third.
Toronto got its second power play of the evening with eight minutes gone in the third, but couldn't get much of anything going. The Leafs got back within one at 13:39 when William Nylander's shot went off Tavares in front and dribbled over the goal line for his first to make it 4-3.
Karlsson hit the post off the rush with two minutes to go with Toronto pressing at the other end. Hill then flashed the leather on a Matthews one-timer off a Tavares drop pass, but Couture iced it into the empty net with under a minute to play.
Friday's puck drop was early, because the Leafs were set to embark on their first trip to the U.S. since March 2020 right after the game.
UP NEXT
Sharks: At Boston on Sunday
Maple Leafs: In Pittsburgh on Saturday.
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