TORONTO -- James van Riemsdyk had the antidote to the Nashville Predators three-game winning streak on Tuesday night.

It came in the form of three goals. The second career hat trick by the Toronto Maple Leafs left winger helped defeat the Predators 6-2.

"It felt pretty good," van Riemsdyk said. "I thought the puck was following us around pretty good tonight as a line and I was obviously on the fortunate end of some of those bounces and was able to be opportunistic on the chances."

Van Riemsdyk added an assist, Tyler Bozak had a career-best four assists and Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs.

Leo Komarov and William Nylander each added a goal or the Maple Leafs (7-6-3), who had 32 saves from goaltender Frederik Andersen.

James Neal and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators (6-6-3).

"We had lots of chances to score goals," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "(The Maple Leafs) had a couple of goals that were seeing-eye goals, where they just turned and fired it and it worked its way through legs and bodies and found the back of the net.

"We had as many quality chances and they didn't find the back of the net. It didn't find its way through, it hit a shoulder, it hit a leg. They capitalized on their opportunities."

Marek Mazanec, appearing in his third game of the season in the Nashville goal, stopped 26 shots.

The Maple Leafs took a 3-2 lead after two periods.

Komarov stretched the lead with his second goal of the season at 7:18 of the third period on a tip-in.

Van Riemsdyk completed his hat trick at 13:38 on a backhand from the slot for his seventh goal of the season. Nylander scored his fifth of the season at 15:23.

"I saw (van Riemsdyk) work real hard in practice yesterday," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I saw him skate, he's been skating better. He wasn't skating as good as he could at the start of the year. Obviously with that kind of confidence, good for him.

Marner's a real good player who makes plays and (Bozak) passed the puck."

The Maple Leafs scored at 1:04 of the first period with Marner notching his sixth of the season on a shot from the right faceoff circle after taking possession of the puck behind the Predators' net. Bozak and van Riemsdyk picked up assists.

Van Riemsdyk scored his first goal the game from the slot to give Toronto a 2-0 lead at 14:04 of the first. Marner and Bozak earned assists.

Neal scored for the fifth straight game -- his seventh goal of the season and sixth in his past five games -- at 17:53 of the first to cut Toronto's lead to 2-1.

Neal had an easy conversion from the edge of the crease on a pass from the right wing by Ryan Johansen.

"I felt like we had some good offensive time but every time we made a mistake it kind of found its way in the back of the net," Neal said.

The Predators probably could have done a better job of crashing the Toronto goal.

"You can always create more havoc around the net," Neal said. "If you're going there and you're shooting the puck there good things are going to happen and that's something we talked about and try to put into our game. We had a good home stretch and we're playing good hockey. It's a tough one tonight but we'll regroup."

The Maple Leafs took a 3-1 lead when van Riemsdyk tipped in a pass from the right dasher from Bozak at 7:52 of the second.

Arvidsson was put in the clear on a pass from Colin Wilson to score his fifth goal of the season, trimming the Toronto lead to 3-2 at 16:09 of the second.

"I think we can still improve, but obviously it's fun playing with those guys for me," Bozak said of his line with Marner and van Riemsdyk. "They do a lot of work, I just try to complement them as much as I can and get to the right spots on the ice and distribute the puck to them as much as possible."

NOTES: Predators G Pekka Rinne is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and did not play Tuesday. G Marek Mazanec, who was recalled from the American Hockey League on Monday after making two starts for the Milwaukee Admirals, started Tuesday. Rinne is 4-0-2 with a 1.14 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage in November. ...The Maple Leafs and Predators play two games this season with the other March 30 in Nashville. ...The Maple Leafs 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday was victory No. 2,800 for the franchise. ... The Predators play the second contest of their three-game road trip Thursday against the Ottawa Senators. ... The Maple Leafs are home to the Florida Panthers at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday.