It was showtime up north for Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils. Coming off a great home stand that saw him get his first three goals of the season, Hughes continued his tear by recording his third career hat trick in a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

After scoring twice in a dominant second period that saw the Devils erupt for four goals, Hughes put the exclamation mark on the Devils’ fifth straight win by scoring his third into an open net. In less than a week, Hughes went from a goose egg in the Devils’ first three games to six goals in victories over the Panthers, Oilers, and Maple Leafs.

After winning their first two home games, the Devils made the trip to Toronto to face a Leafs team that still hasn’t hit its stride. They’ve found life more difficult without Mitch Marner, who now stars on the Vegas strip with Jack Eichel. In particular, Leafs captain Auston Matthews has yet to get going. He entered the game with four goals, but half have come via empty netters. Matthews and Matthew Knies still haven’t found a regular line mate.

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe doesn’t have that problem. The former Leafs coach can put out his scoring lines without any concern. Even if that means continuing to go back to Ondrej Palat with Hughes and Jesper Bratt on one line. Nico Hischier continues to play with Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer on the other big line. That allows Keefe to have promising rookie Arseny Gritsyuk on the third line with Cody Glass and Connor Brown. All three lines gave the Leafs fits. In particular, the Hughes unit, which turned the game around.

In the first period, it was the Leafs who drew first blood. On a strong cycle, Nylander set up Oliver Ekman-Larsson for a shot that ricocheted off Jake Allen. John Tavares was able to bat the rebound out of mid-air past Allen for his fourth at 6:36. It was a skilled play from the former Leafs captain who continues to produce. The former New York Islanders 2009 number one overall pick is two goals shy of 500 for his career.

Trailing by one, the Devils generated some quality chances. But Anthony Stolarz made the big stops to keep them off the scoreboard. That included making a key save on Hughes and then denying a Hischier shorthanded bid. He skated in two-on-one with Bratt and got a good shot right on Stolarz. The Devils remain one of the league’s most potent shorthanded teams. With their top stars all able to kill penalties, including Hughes, they can go from defense to offense very quickly. They killed off two Toronto power plays to continue a strong stretch without giving anything up down a man.

The game remained 1-0 entering the second period. It didn’t remain that way for long. On some good sustained pressure, a diving Palat freed up a loose puck for Hughes, who got it over to Brett Pesce. He then moved it down for Bratt, who patiently waited to make a pass for Hughes in the slot where he fired through a Palat screen and scored to tie the game.

For some reason, the Leafs video coach told Keefe to challenge the goal for goaltender interference. However, even watching it live, it was obvious that Palat didn’t make any contact. The replays confirmed it. The review was as quick as possible, with the refs confirming it as a good goal. That meant a minor penalty on the Leafs for delay of game. A no-no against a good Devils power play that doesn’t rely on only one unit.

As dangerous as the top unit was, with Mercer getting stopped twice in succession by Stolarz, Keefe put out the second unit for the second half of the man-advantage. On a good retrieval from Gritsyuk, he moved the puck back up for Luke Hughes, who dished across for a Meier one-timer that rebounded out to Glass for a power-play goal that made it 2-1. Just like that, the Devils had the lead with two straight goals in over a 1:53 span.

The entire complexion of the game swung. The Leafs decided to get lulled into a run and gun style that favored the Devils. They took full advantage of some Leafs miscues to again burn their slower foe in transition. Some excellent passing started by Gritsyuk led directly to Luke Glendening finding a wide open Brenden Dillon for a wrist shot that made it 3-1 at 4:54.

That forced Leafs coach Craig Berube to call a timeout to try to regroup his team. At first, the Leafs didn’t respond well. In fact, Mercer just missed making it 4-1. Instead, the Devils got caught in a bad line change, which led to Nylander walking in on a two-on-one before easily feeding Matias Maccelli for a tap in that cut it to 3-2.

The track meet continued. Both teams used their speed and skating to create opportunies at each end. Luke Hughes was shut down by Stolarz, who prevented the Devils from retaking a two-goal lead.

But in a period full of turnovers, with the Devils forcing more, they eventually were able to get the big insurance goal late. On a Leafs giveaway inside the Devils blue line, Simon Nemec moved the puck to Bratt, who had Jack Hughes hanging at the Toronto blue line for a breakaway. He made the most of it by winding up with a full slap shot that beat Stolarz short side for his second of the game.

Matthews tried to come back with over a minute left. Following a faceoff win, he had a good look at a backhand, but pushed it off the side of the net. He later was stopped by Allen, who also made a save on Knies. That was as close as the Leafs came to getting back in it.

In the third, the Devils never could quite get the fifth goal, failing to convert on a power play. With Jonas Siegenthaler off for interference on Dakota Joshua, they had to kill a late penalty. The Leafs were limited to just one Tavares deflection that Allen handled.

With 30 seconds remaining, Hughes completed the hat trick when his shot went in to finish it off. However, the game wasn’t over yet. Instead of skating it out, Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit and Devils forward Brian Halonen had a scrap. Halonen got the knockdown for the decision.

The Devils go for six in a row later tonight when they return home to host the Minnesota Wild.