Auston Matthews scores twice as Maple Leafs lose to Devils

Jesper Bratt broke a tie with 1:14 left with his second goal of the game and the New Jersey Devils beat Toronto 6-5 on Thursday night, overcoming Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews’ NHL-leading 67th and 68th goals of the season.

Matthews has the most goals in the NHL since Mario Lemieux had 69 in 1995-96.

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

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

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

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

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

His first period marker was also his 50th even-strength goal of the season, becoming the first player to hit that mark since Teemu Selanne did in the 1992-93 season.

Down 3-2 after a wild and sloppy first, Matthews scored his second of the evening and 68th of the campaign off an inch-perfect Domi pass at 7:59 before chants of “M-V-P!” rained down from the Scotiabank Arena stands.

The goal — his ninth in the last seven games — was the sniper’s 274th all-time at even strength to pass Mats Sundin for top spot in franchise history.

With the teams tied at 4, Matthews took a tripping penalty in the third and the Devils capitalized when Bratt beat Samsonov with his 26th with 8:57 to go.

Tavares got things back level again with 4:47 left when he buried his second of the night — and 26th of the campaign. But the Devils responded with 1:14 to go when Bratt snapped in his 27th off the 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. Failing that, Toronto closes out the season with back-to-back games in Florida against the Panthers and Lightning next week.

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

Files from Sportsnet were used in this report