Matthews scores twice, Samsonov makes 18 saves in Maple Leafs’ 4-0 win over Predators

TORONTO — Auston Matthews scored twice, Ilya Samsonov made 18 saves for his first shutout of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Nashville Predators 4-0 on Saturday night.

Samsonov has 11 NHL shutouts. He got the start after Joseph Woll sprained an ankle Thursday night in a 4-3 victory in Ottawa.

“Some shock,” Samsonov, who watched Matt Murray deal with a string of injuries last season, said of his teammate going down. “Not too fun to see.”

David Kampf and Noah Gregor, into an empty net, also scored to help Toronto improve to 14-6-4. William Nylander added two assists, and John Tavares had one for his 998th career point.

“We played, finally, 60 minutes — full game,” Kampf saod. “Every line rolling … hopefully we can keep it going.”

Kevin Lankinen stopped 33 shots for Nashville. The Predators had won three in a row and nine of 11.

“Didn’t play very good,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I don’t think any of us played very good.”

Kampf opened the scoring with 5:45 left in the second period when he took a pass from Conor Timmins, split two defenders and roofed a shot for his third goal of the season

Matthews doubled that lead with 2:03 left in the period when Lankinen could only get a piece of William Nylander’s pass on a give-and-go off the rush.

Matthews added his 18th of the season with 3:11 left in the game. Gregor added the empty-netter with Toronto killing a penalty with under two minutes to go.

Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe delivered a huge hit on Luke Evangelista in the third and then dropped the gloves with Kiefer Sherwood.