TORONTO -- Auston Matthews scored against his hometown team, but the Toronto Maple Leafs still dropped their fourth straight game on home ice, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
Former Leaf Peter Holland scored the shootout winner for Arizona, which won for the third time in the last four games. Holland was traded to the Coyotes last week and was facing Toronto for the first time since.
Jordan Martinook and Oliver Ekman-Larsson added goals in regulation for Arizona (10-14-6) and Mike Smith made 44 saves.
Matthews, from Scottsdale, Ariz., and a childhood Coyotes fan, was joined on the scoresheet for Toronto (12-11-6) by Mitch Marner. Frederik Andersen making 27 saves in defeat. Toronto outshot Arizona 46-30.
The Leafs finally broke through on a power play with eight seconds remaining in the first period after peppering Smith with shots through a one-sided frame.
Matthews fired from atop the right faceoff circle -- a Tyler Bozak screen helping the shot beat the Coyotes' 34-year-old netminder from Kingston, Ont. It was the eighth goal in the last 10 games for Matthews and 14th of the year, upping his team lead in that category.
He was especially excited before the game to face 40-year-old Shane Doan, the Coyotes long-time captain and one of Matthews' favourite players as a kid.
Matthews, now with 23 points, is racing to catch up to Winnipeg sensation Patrik Laine for the rookie lead in both goals and points. Laine is tops among first-year players with 17 goals and 25 points.
Toronto outshot Arizona 21-7 in the first, matching a season-high for shots in one period. The Coyotes entered the night yielding almost 36 shots per-game, the worst mark in the NHL.
The club was coming off a 4-1 win in Detroit, though, their second victory in three games.
The Coyotes had their best chance to score on the penalty kill after former Leaf Luke Schenn was called for tripping. Schenn's one-time defensive partner Jake Gardiner strolled up the ice before dropping a pass in the neutral zone that found no one. Arizona winger Tobias Rieder scooped it up in the Leafs zone and went in alone on Andersen, his shot ultimately stopped.
The Coyotes got even after 70 seconds in the middle period when Martinook taking care of a rebound around the crease. Andersen stopped the first and second shots, including a strong right pad save on Radim Vrbata, but couldn't get in front of Martinook's attempt.
Arizona jumped in front 2-1 about two minutes later with a five-on-three power play. Ekman-Larsson fired a shot from atop the right faceoff circle with Martin Hanzal offering a screen in front. The Coyotes got the two-man advantage after Ekman-Larsson was crunched into the boards by Leafs rookie and top penalty killer Zach Hyman.
Arizona nearly extended its lead to two when Jamie McGinn pinged a shot off the post with the Leafs running around in their own zone.
Marner evened it at 2-2 just over a minute after that. The 19-year-old, who entered the night without a goal in 11 games, got a step on the Coyotes defence, fed near the opposition blue line by defenceman Roman Polak. Marner whipped the shot by the glove of Smith for his eighth goal and 21st point this year.
He hadn't scored since Nov. 17 against Florida. Marner trails only Laine and Matthews in rookie scoring.
The action turned testy late in the second when Schenn dumped Matthews in the corner of the Arizona zone. The two teams exchanged shoves and verbal snipes before Schenn went to the box for boarding and handed the Leafs a brief five-on-three advantage. They failed to score, landing only one shot on goal.
Arizona got a chance to grab the lead back early in the third period when Matthews high-sticked Ryan White. Matthews had just had his shot attempt in the high slot blocked by White when he clipped the 28-year-old, drawing a double-minor for the foul.
The Leafs contained the Coyotes, who own the league's worst power play, during the four-minute advantage. Andersen stopped all four shots he faced.
Doan had a great chance down the stretch of regulation to give Arizona another lead, but his breakaway attempt was snared by the glove of the Leafs goaltender.
Smith then denied Matthews in three-on-three overtime, Matthews batting William Nylander's passing attempt out of mid-air off the rush. The wild extra frame saw end-to-end action, Vrbata with a chance to win it in the dying seconds. His attempt struck the crossbar.
All three Leaf shootout attempts drew iron, the club now 0-5 in the skills portion of extra time.
