For the first time this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won three games in a row. After a greasy win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, one that head coach Craig Berube was frustrated about despite the two points, the Leafs brought a much more inspired effort to the table in Wednesday night’s 5-3 victory over the Utah Mammoth.

The Mammoth have been one of the hotter teams to start the 2025-26 season, coming into Wednesday’s contest having won eight of their last ten games. Before anyone took to the ice, the game began with a ceremony honouring John Tavares for his 500th goal in the NHL, an honour he accepted in the form of a golden stick with his wife, parents, and three children in attendance.

The first period was relatively even, with both teams trading chances and Utah outshooting Toronto 8-5. Utah would come out of the period with a 1-0 lead after a defensive breakdown led to former Toronto Marlie Michael Carcone crashing the net for a tap-in past Anthony Stolarz.

The second period, which has been an ongoing weakness for the Maple Leafs this season, was more of a reflection of last season, when it was a strength of theirs. William Nylander opened the scoring after settling a bouncing puck in front of Utah’s net during a delayed penalty call, giving him his sixth goal of the season and his 20th on the season, tying him with Mark Scheifele and Nathan MacKinnon for second in league scoring.

Not long after, Matias Maccelli found Auston Matthews for a goal that can only inspire hope that things are starting to look upward for the Maple Leafs captain.

Utah tied the game on a goal that Anthony Stolarz would probably like back before the second period ended, with Mikhail Sergachev firing a low-velocity point shot through traffic that beat the Leafs’ netminder five-hole.

The second period ended in ugly fashion, with Nylander taking a puck to the ear and Tavares getting a stinger after a collision with Matthew Knies, but the ending wouldn’t be an indication of the rest of the game. The Leafs came out strong in the third period, and John Tavares fittingly enough scored the 501st goal of his career to take the lead.

Following that goal came the banner moment of the night – a revenge goal for Matias Maccelli.

An empty-net goal from Knies would seal the deal, and aside from an unfortunate goal in the final two minutes for Dylan Guenther, the game ended on a high note, and with Maccelli earning the belt for performance of the game voted by the players.

Here are four takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ 5-3 victory over the Mammoth.

Matias Maccelli was scratched for the first time this season on Monday night, a move that was backed up by support from head coach Craig Berube despite him coming out of the lineup.

Maccelli responded with a two-point performance, setting up Matthews for a beauty in the second period and eventually scoring the game-winner to give him seven points in 13 games on the season.

“Great team win,” Maccelli said postgame. “Personally, it felt even better doing it against my old team, and getting the game-winner too feels really good.”

It’s been an up-and-down start to the season for Maccelli, but you could see the potential in his game all along. Getting to skate on a line with Nic Roy and Dakota Joshua surely helps as well, given that’s who he was playing with in preseason before the Scott Laughton injury forced the lines into a blender. Now that the Maple Leafs’ forward corps is at full health, they will have an opportunity to rediscover the chemistry they built up in preseason. It was a good effort from all around, and for Maccelli, it was just a little bit sweeter.

Auston Matthews has three goals in his last three games, getting him up to eight goals in 14 games on the season. He would be the first one to tell you that his start to the season wasn’t good enough, so the signs lately have been inspiring, and not just because of what he’s doing on the scoresheet. It’s the way the goals are going in.

Matthews’ primary threat as a forward is his shot, and while he has the hockey IQ and the hands to score 30 without his main weapon, he’s not nearly as dangerous as he is when he’s a constant threat to find the back of the net. His goal against the Flyers was a top shelf rip from the top of the circle. He scored a breakaway goal against the Penguins on Monday, and his goal tonight was a rocket of a one-timer off of a sweet dish from Maccelli. These are the types of goals we see from him when he’s healthy and confident.

“I thought we competed really well, even going down after one period,” Matthews told reporters. “I thought we did lots of good things, just felt like we had good rhythm tonight, lots of good flow. All four lines were playing hard, competing, creating chances, defending well, it’s good to get those two points.”

When Matthews has power on his shot and he’s being aggressive with it, he’s a completely different player and one that gives the Maple Leafs a much different perception as a team this season.

Who could have predicted John Tavares would produce at his highest rate since his first season with the team after re-upping with the Maple Leafs for a third of what he was paid on his last contract? Maybe this kind of point-producing pace won’t last all season, but the Maple Leafs got two points out of Tavares on Wednesday night, and at age 35 and making just over $4 million a year, he’s got seven goals and 18 points in 14 games so far this season.

Tavares talked postgame about how special it was to have his family in attendance for the ceremony.

“They’ve been on the journey, you know, my parents right from the get go and now my wife and my kids, so, amazing to share with them,” Tavares said. “They’re my biggest supporters and sacrificed a lot so I can do what I do. Really glad I got to share that with them, and even better to follow it up with a great effort today and a big win to carry the momentum on.”

With Nylander’s promotion to the top line, Tavares has found a recent groove with Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann on his wings. It’s a good combination for Robertson, who is looking to carve a roster spot for good, and McMann, who has been getting better bounces after a bit of a slump lately.

I’m burying this one at the bottom because it was overall a solid team win, and he somewhat made up for his gaffe with an assist on Maccelli’s game-winning goal. But it was a tough start for Morgan Rielly in his own end. On Utah’s first goal of the game, he collapsed on the puck-carrier despite the fact that Brandon Carlo already had him covered, which left Carcone wide open in front of the net for the first goal of the game.

Rielly has shown much more promise on the back end from an offensive standpoint, with ten points in 13 games so far, but he needs to clean up mistakes like this, especially now that, with full health, he’ll have a consistent and reliable partner in Carlo. Many of Rielly’s previous flaws defensively can be blamed on the fact that he’s always found himself paired with a misfit, but the team solved that issue at last season’s deadline. He will always have mistakes like that from time to time, and if that’s the case, he’ll need to at minimum keep producing the way he is on offence.

The Maple Leafs will have a day off on Thursday before getting set to host the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.

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