CALGARY, Alberta (AP) – Auston Matthews and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 Sunday night. Morgan Rielly and Alex Galchenyuk also scored for the Maple Leafs, who are 6-3-1 in their last ten and continue to top the NHL’s North Division. Michael Hutchinson made 32 saves. Joakim Nordstrom and Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Flames, who are 2-8-0 in their last ten and 5-8-0 since Darryl Sutter took over as head coach. David Rittich stopped 26 shots between the division rivals in the first of back-to-back games.
Toronto has won five of seven meetings between the teams this season. The Flames host the Maple Leafs again Monday. Calgary trails the Montreal Canadiens, holding the fourth and final playoff spot in the division by six points. Toronto scored twice in the third period. The Leafs went ahead 3-2 on an own-goal by the Flames credited to Tavares at 6:55.
Rittich made initial saves on William Nylander and Tavares, but the rebound went off Noah Hanifin’s skate and into Calgary’s net. Hanifin swung his stick in frustration and broke it across Calgary’s post.
Matthews made it 4-2 at 9:16 with his league-leading 25th from close range. Mitch Marner passed to his linemate from the goal-line, driving the net for the insurance goal.
When the Flames could not get out of their zone cleanly, Rielly took advantage of a turnover and scored on Toronto’s first shot on net 58 seconds after the puck drop. The defenseman skated the puck to the far faceoff circle and beat Rittich with a wrist over the Calgary goaltender’s left shoulder.
The Flames tied it 1-1 on Nordstrom’s goal at 12:43 as he tipped Mark Giordano’s slap shot upstairs on Hutchinson for his first goal as a Flame.
Mangiapane put the Flames up 2-1 with 39 seconds remaining in the opening period. He pulled Mikael Backlund’s pass out of his skates and got an off-speed shot away that beat Hutchinson’s blocker.
Galchenyuk scored his first with the Maple Leafs and tied the score late in the second period. The forward converted a goal-mouth feed from Tavares.
SCHEDULE
Calgary is scheduled to host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and Saturday. The Canucks, however, were dealing with 16 players on the NHL’s pandemic protocol list Sunday.
MILESTONES
Giordano’s assist on Nordstrom’s goal was his 500th career point. Al MacInnis (822) and Gary Suter (565) are the only Flames defensemen to reach that mark.
With 297 career points, Rielly tied Bryan McCabe for sixth in all-time points among Maple Leaf’s defensemen.
Flames forward Sam Bennett played his 400th career NHL game.
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