TORONTO -- Tyler Johnson had stitches in his left eye brow and a bruise below the eye.

The Tampa Bay Lightning center was hit in the face by a puck during a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Sunday and left the game holding a towel to his face.

Johnson came back strong on Monday, however, and scored twice as the Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 for their seventh straight win.

He said he had no doubts about playing against the Leafs despite the injury. "It wasn't bad, it looked a lot worse than it was," said Johnson, who has had his struggles this season and so the two-goal game provided a boost. "I feel more comfortable out there. I think our line is playing better. I think we can do better but we've had some bad luck as well."

"That's the beauty of our team, we can rely on different lines every night," said center Steven Stamkos, who had a six-game goal steak stopped. "(Johnson) shows a lot of character coming back from taking that puck to the eye yesterday and gets rewarded from the hockey gods."

It was the second loss in a row for the rebuilding Maple Leafs (21-30-10), who have been busy trading veteran players. "We had seven new guys, that's a lot of changes," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "They're excited, they wanted to play."

The Leafs had four players making their NHL debuts -- centers William Nylander and Zach Hyman and right wingers Kasperi Kapanen and Nikita Soshnikov.

"It was lots of fun," Nylander said "I think we created some chances. If I maybe could have scored one goal, but it was lots of fun so I think we gained a lot of experience from today and just keep building on from that."

"I thought they were good," Babcock said. "They're fast. They're hard on the puck. They've got skill. I thought we had the puck a lot. (Tampa Bay) played last night so keep it in perspective but I still thought we had lots of opportunity and I thought they made plays and they played fast, so I was impressed with them."

The Leafs did not lack in energy, especially at the end. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for Tampa Bay in his 18th game of the season and was deprived of his third career shutout on a goal by Toronto center Nazem Kadri late in the third period.

Vasilevskiy shut out the Maple Leafs on Jan. 27 in Tampa.

Garret Sparks stopped 26 shots in the Toronto goal in his sixth game with the Maple Leafs this season.

Tampa Bay (37-22-4) outshot Toronto 15-9 in the goal-less first period. Sparks made some good saves, including a sprawling, stick effort on Lightning center Valtteri Filppula. Stamkos hit a post behind Sparks.

Johnson flicked a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle past Sparks at 4:53 of the second period for his first goal of the game to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

Johnson scored an unassisted goal from close range that squirted past Sparks at 15:28 of the second for his second goal of the game and his 11th of the season.

Each team had 20 shots on goal after two periods.

"We've played a lot of hockey of late," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Three (games) in four (nights) and back-to-back. In those back-to-backs, it's so much easier to play with the lead. We ended up probably scoring on shots we shouldn't have and missed on some we probably should have scored. We got the lead and we did some good things but ultimately we left it in the hands of the goaltender and Vasi he took it home for us. Toronto really pushed there in the third."

The Leafs scored at 17:45 of the third on a shot by Kadri from the right faceoff circle. It was his 12th goal of the season and came with Sparks removed for an extra attacker.

The Lightning had defenseman Jason Garrison back after he missed 10 games with a lower-body injury suffered Feb. 8 in a game at Ottawa.

Toronto was without right winger Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau for the second game in a row with neck spasms.

NOTES: Toronto recalled C William Nylander, RW Kasperi Kapanen, RW Nikita Soshnikov, C Zach Hyman, RW Ben Smith and D Connor Carrick from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. RW Mark Arcobello, LW Brendan Leipsic, LW Josh Leivo and D Stuart Percy were loaned to the Marlies. ... The Leafs traded C Daniel Winnik and a fifth-round draft pick (from the Anaheim Ducks) to the Washington Capitals on Sunday for Carrick, C Brooks Laich and a second-round pick in the 2016 draft. ... The Lightning assigned D Matt Taormina to Syracuse of the AHL. ... Tampa Bay did not make a deal before the trade deadline Monday. ... The Maple Leafs visit the Capitals on Wednesday. ... The Lightning conclude a four-game trip Thursday in Ottawa when they play the Senators.