Fill-in goalie sparks Maple Leafs past Kings

TORONTO — Garret Sparks made 33 saves in a surprise start, Kasperi Kapanen scored twice, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Monday for their fifth straight win.

Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner also scored to help Toronto win for the sixth time in seven games. Auston Matthews and Jake Gardiner each added two assists.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored for the Kings, who have lost four of six (2-3-1). Jack Campbell stopped 21 shots for Los Angeles.

Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock announced Sparks as the starter ahead of No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen after the morning skate. Toronto then announced about 2 1/2 hours before puck drop that Andersen has a lower-body injury and is day to day, with Eamon Mcadam getting recalled from Newfoundland of the ECHL on an emergency basis.

At Nashville, Tenn., Ryan Johansen and P.K. Subban had two assists apiece to back Pekka Rinne, who had 29 saves, as Nashville won for the fifth time in six games.

Craig Smith, Mattias Ekholm, Filip Forsberg and Miikka Salomaki scored for the Predators, who dealt Minnesota its fourth loss in five games.

At Montreal, Jonathan Drouin scored twice in support of Antti Niemi, who stopped 25 shots for his second straight win in place of Carey Price (flu).

Tomas Plekanec scored a goal in his 1,000th NHL game, and Tomas Tatar, Brendan Gallagher, Charles Hudon also scored for the Canadiens.

Andreas Athanasiou had two goals for Detroit (0-4-2), which is off to the worst start in franchise history.

At Ottawa, Ontario, Brady Tkachuk, Mikkel Boedker and Zack Smith scored in the third period to back Craig Anderson, who had 37 saves. Ben Bishop, who stopped 21 shots, lost in regulation to Ottawa for the first time (9-1-4) in his career.