TIMELY KAD-TRICK!

Three goals for Naz plus 54 saves from Andersen lift Leafs over the Blue Jackets

A Nazem Kadri hat trick and superb goaltending from Frederik Andersen.

The simple math added up to another victory for the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night at the

Air Canada Centre.

Kadri recorded his fourth career National Hockey League hat trick and Andersen stopped 54 shots as the Leafs won for the ninth time in 10 games, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3.

It’s the first time the Leafs have won all five games in a five-game home stand.

Kadri had two assists to give him a career-high five points. Kadri completed the hat trick at 11:21 of the third when Mitch Marner found him hiding and fed him with a perfect pass.

The win came at a price for the Leafs, as defenceman Jake Gardiner left in the first period and did not return. While social media was abuzz with the idea that Gardiner had been traded, the Leafs announced at the start of the third period that Gardiner would not return because of a lower-body injury.

“They just told me he has some sort of lower-body thing and he has some kind of spasm or something like that and they couldn’t get it to relax,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “So they would not let him come back.”

The Leafs have a day off on Thursday, and Babcock was not sure whether Gardiner would be able to practise on Friday.

A Gardiner absence for any length of time would create a rather large hole on the Leafs blue line. Not only was Gardiner leading the Leafs in ice time heading into the game with an average of 22 minutes 52 seconds, he has been more than his fair share of providing offence, recording 35 points (four goals and 31 assists) in 58 games.

The Blue Jackets, who won eight of their previous nine games in Toronto, kept up their recent shoot-from-anywhere mentality.

After recording 101 shots on goal in their past two games combined (51 against the New York Islanders on Tuesday and 50 versus the New Jersey Devils on Saturday), the Jackets fired 57 at Andersen. The previous high given up by the Leafs this season was 48.

There was a standing ovation for Andersen in the third period and chants of “Freddie, Freddie!” after he made a point-blank toe save on Boone Jenner. Had the Jackets forward scored, the game would have been tied 4-4.

The second period for the Leafs followed the pattern of the first: They were ahead, even though they were outplayed.

Goals by Kadri and Marner in the middle period staked Toronto to a 4-2 lead after Nick Foligno scored early to tie the game. At 8:03, Kadri took a pass from Morgan Rielly and shot the puck between goalie Joonas Korpisalo’s legs. Just over two minutes later at 10:17, Kadri made a terrific pass to Marner, feathering the puck on a backhand, which allowed Marner to blast it past Korpisalo.

In 10 games since getting Marner as a linemate, Kadri has seven goals and eight assists. In the previous 20 games before the line switch, and Kadri’s goodbye to Leo Komarov, Kadri had one goal and one assist.

Still, for the most part at evenstrength, the Leafs were chasing the game. The Jackets had 22 shots on goal in the second, the most allowed by Toronto in any period in 2017-18.

With less than six minutes to go in the period, Jack Johnson’s shot rang off the post and went into the net behind Andersen, closing the gap to one goal.

The Leafs had a 2-1 lead after the first period despite being outshot 19-12.

Dominic Moore scored for the first time in 23 games when he beat Korpisalo on a backhand at 4:38. It was Moore’s fifth goal of the season and first since Nov. 30, when he scored in Edmonton.

It was 2-0 Toronto at 7:36 when Kadri beat Korpisalo on a screen.

The Jackets got one past Andersen at 18:21, when Foligno scored.