McKenna Scores the Winner as Leafs Beat Sharks 3-1 in First Meeting With Stenberg

Gavin McKenna scored the winner in the first NHL meeting between the top two picks of the 2026 draft, beating Yaroslav Askarov on a third-period power play as Toronto beat San Jose 3-1 on Monday night. The goal, at 4:56 of the third, was the 18-year-old’s first power-play goal in the league, and it landed four days after his own coach had to apologise for benching him. Ivar Stenberg, the No. 2 pick, finished the night minus-1 with one shot for the Sharks.

How did McKenna score the winner?

From the bottom of the right face-off dot, on the power play, at 4:56 of the third period. Per the NHL.com recap, McKenna took the puck at the dot, moved into the slot and beat Askarov with a wrist shot to the glove side, snapping a 1-1 tie. Reuters reports the puck came to him from Auston Matthews, who finished with a goal and two assists. It was McKenna’s first NHL power-play goal, in a game shaped by special teams: both Toronto goals before the empty-netter came on the man advantage, which is the whole point of how the power play works in hockey.

Why does this goal land harder than a normal October winner?

Because of where McKenna was four days earlier. Against Buffalo last Thursday he played 6:36, a career low, and sat for the final 32:54 of an overtime loss while his coach’s rotation stalled; Jim Hiller then told reporters the benching was his own mistake, a sequence covered in the account of McKenna’s benching and Hiller’s admission. Monday was the answer a No. 1 pick is supposed to give: still only 11:30 of ice time, per the final box score, but the decisive shift of the game. The contrast is the story. Toronto did not hand him the night; he took the one moment that decided it.

What happened in the rest of the game?

San Jose led first and Toronto chased it for two periods. Mason Marchment opened the scoring at 13:54 of the first. Matthews tied it at 19:48 of the second, with 12 seconds left in the period, converting a feed from behind the net after San Jose was called for too many men, a penalty Reuters attributes to Macklin Celebrini jumping on too early. Nick Paul’s empty-net goal at 19:20 of the third closed it. Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for his first home win as a Maple Leaf, and Askarov made 29 for San Jose. Matthews’ three-point night was his fourth multi-point game of the season and the 64th three-point game of his career, one behind Mats Sundin for third in franchise history, per the NHL.com recap. Toronto snapped a three-game skid (0-2-1) and moved to 4-4-2; San Jose is 4-4-1.

How did Stenberg’s side of the first meeting go?

Quietly. The No. 2 pick, a Sharks winger, played 14:27, took one shot and finished minus-1, per the NHL.com recap and the final box score. There is no shame in that line for an 18-year-old on the road in the second half of a long trip, and the Sharks play at Montreal on Tuesday in the second game of a back-to-back. The first meeting between the two names at the top of the 2026 class, a class produced by the NHL draft lottery odds both clubs lived at the wrong end of, went to the No. 1 pick on points and on the scoresheet. The rematch dates are now the fixtures both fan bases will circle.

What do the league’s notes say about McKenna’s first 10 games?

They put him in rare Toronto company, with the attribution kept where it belongs. Per the NHL.com recap notes, McKenna, three goals and three assists, became the second Maple Leafs player aged 18 or younger in the modern era, since 1943-44, with six or more points through 10 career games, alongside Russ Courtnall, who recorded 10 points in 1983-84. The same notes make him the fifth player aged 18 or younger to score a game-winning goal for Toronto. No second outlet repeated those notes in its game report, so they are carried here as the league’s own published record, which is the right weight for them: official, and still early.

What comes next for both rookies?

Toronto is at Columbus on Tuesday, and San Jose is at Montreal the same night. For McKenna the question is the one his first 10 games keep asking: whether the minutes follow the moments. He has produced a point every other game on fourth-line-adjacent usage, in games that run the standard three periods with his shifts rationed inside them. Monday’s winner is the strongest argument yet that the rationing is costing Toronto goals. Debut-week stories are a theme of this young season, from Cole Knuble’s debut for his father’s Flyers on the same night to McKenna’s own first weeks, and his next test is whether Hiller’s rotation treats the Sharks game as a turning point or as one good shift.