CALGARY, Alberta — William Nylander had three goals for his second career hat trick, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames 6-3 on Tuesday night.
John Tavares, Bobby McMann and Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto, which pulled one point behind first-place Florida in the Atlantic Division. Auston Matthews had three assists and Joseph Woll stopped 23 shots.
Matt Coronato, Yegor Sharangovich, and Joel Farabee scored for Calgary, which began the night two points ahead of Vancouver for the second wild card in the Western Conference.Dustin Wolf had 24 saves.
Nylander’s first hat trick was exactly eight years earlier at Boston. With nine goals in his last eight games, Nylander has reached the 33-goal mark, second in the NHL — four behind Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl.
The game got off to an odd start with both teams scoring what they thought was the game-opening goal, only for both to be taken off the scoreboard.
At 6:30 of the first period, Tavares batted a rebound out of the air past Wolf, but upon review, it was waved off for being a high-stick. Just 1:39 later, it was Farabee jamming in a loose puck in the crease, but Toronto challenged the call and the goal was overturned for goalie interference.
Takeaways
Maple Leafs: Forward Mitch Marner (lower-body injury), fourth in the NHL in scoring, missed his first game of the season. His absence did not hurt Toronto’s power play. The Maple Leafs scored on their first two chances against the Flames on the way to finishing 2 for 4.
Flames: The goals by Coronato and Sharangovich came on extended two-man advantages as Calgary’s power play remained finished 2 for 5 with the extra man to improve to 9 for 24 over the past seven games.
Key moment
Tied 2-2 in the second, Toronto took the lead for good with 7:32 left when McMann elected to keep the puck on a 2-on-1 with Steven Lorentz and fired a shot past Wolf high on his blocker side for his 16th goal.
Key stat
It’s been feast or famine of late for the Maple Leafs offensively. In five of their last 10 games, they’ve been held to fewer than two goals. In the other five, they’ve scored four or more.
Up Next
The Maple Leafs play at Seattle on Thursday, and the Flames host Colorado.
