Auston Matthews, William Nylander highlight what sparked Leafs' comeback after 'unacceptable' first two periods vs. Pens

The Toronto Maple Leafs mounted a third period comeback against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Scotiabank Arena on Monday. The Leafs scored four unanswered goals to erase a 3-0 deficit.

The Penguins were off to a brilliant start in the first two periods, outshooting the Leafs 25-8. Erik Karlsson started the scoring at 13:08 in the first period before rookie Ben Kindel netted his first two goal game.

The Leafs lifted themselves up after the second intermission. Captain Auston Matthews put them on the board with 3:24 played in the third before William Nylander, who was away from the ice for two games, burried two goals in little over 2 minutes.

"Just energy and passion, emotion," Matthews said about the change in mindset heading into the third. (02:32) "The first two periods, I mean, it wasn't pretty. We just couldn't really get much going on either side of the puck, and I think just the message was in the third period, let's just go work. Let's get one goal and see what happens.

"And I'm proud of the way we fought back, but obviously you don't want to put yourself in that position to begin with. So that's definitely something that we wanted to clean up right away."

With the momentum on their side, Bobby McMann netted a go-ahead goal at 13:43 in the third. The Leafs scored 4 times on just 12 shots in the period.

“We just simplified our game, got after it,” Nylander said after the game. (10:20) “We played terrible for two periods, so we just tried to do something. It was unacceptable (in the first two periods), there’s nothing more to say. Just our compete level was not there. Losing every battle, losing every puck. That’s what it comes down to.”

Penguins goalie Triston Jarry made 16 saves in the game while Leafs netminder Anthony Stolarz stopped 34 shots on goal.

Craig Berube unhappy with Leafs' approach to second period

Down 2-0 after the first period, the Leafs didn't come up with an appropriate response after the first intermission. According to head coach Craig Berube, the Penguins showed urgency in extending their lead, which they eventually did with Kindel's second goal at 11:50 in the second period.

“What upsets me is we come out in the second period down 2-0, we think we are going to make a push and we didn’t,” Berube said during his presser. "They controlled the whole period with the puck. … We just got back to playing our game [in the third], and obviously ‘Willy,’ Matthews and (Matthew) Knies’ line went out and did what they are capable of doing. And our goalie was good.”

The Leafs have managed 4 wins in their past five games after a shaky start to the season. With 7-5-1 record, they sit third in the Atlantic Division.