3 most impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 3-1 win over Los Angeles Kings feat. John Tavares

The Toronto Maple Leafs came into Saturday night's game against the Los Angeles Kings hoping to shake off the bad feelings from their shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks.

Thanks to their 3-1 victory, they improved to 44-25-4 and overtook both the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning for top spot in the Atlantic Division with 93 points; both Florida-based teams have 92 points.

It was the Kings who broke the ice early in the 2nd period after a scoreless opening 20 minutes of play as Alex Laferriere scored his 16th; the Kings took the 1-0 lead into the second intermission.

However, the Maple Leafs broke through in the game's final frame with a pair of tallies to take the lead. Captain Auston Matthews scored a shorthanded goal just 55 seconds into the period, while John Tavares added a power-play goal at the 12:04 mark.

Tavares then scored his second goal of the night, hitting the vacated Kings net with goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the bench for an extra attacker.

Toronto Maple Leafs players

#1. John Tavares

The now-former captain of the Maple Leafs is having one of the best seasons of his career, ironically in a contract season.

He's up for a new deal this summer and is doing everything he can to show Leafs management he's deserving of a lucrative new contract. He scored twice against the Kings, increasing his total this season to 35.

He skated in 18:35 of total ice time with three shots on goal along with a +1 rating. Additionally, his goal gave him a career-best 12 goals in a single month.

#2. Anthony Stolarz

The Leafs' goaltender, who is playing in his first year in Toronto, was the biggest reason other than the pair of goals from Tavares as to why his club picked up a huge pair of points.

He stopped all but one of the 36 shots that the Kings threw at him on Saturday, finishing with a strong .972 save percentage. Among the stops he made were five of six attempts from Laferriere, along with seven saves on Andrei Kuzmenko.

#3. Auston Matthews

The first-year Maple Leafs captian isn't scoring quite at his normal pace, but any night that he notches both a goal and an assist, the odds say that it's going to be a good night for the Leafs.

He scored his 28th goal of the season (just seconds after being stoned on a breakaway attempt) while skating in 22:07 of ice time; he also finished with a team-high eight total shots on goal as part of the win over the Kings.