PHILADELPHIA – On Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs scored four times in the third period and outdistanced the Flyers, 6-3.
Auston Matthews picked up his 51st goal of the season in the Leafs win.
“I thought halfway through the second we got a little bit more life going and in the third (period) we just took over,” Matthews said. “It definitely wasn’t a pretty one, especially those first two periods, but just sticking with it, sometimes you have to grind these kinds of games out when the offense isn’t clicking on all cylinders.”
Toronto improved to 44-19-5.
Jack Campbell made 29 saves in the Toronto win.
“I definitely felt like myself and just having fun and competing and playing my game,” Campbell said. “There’s obviously some details I have to keep clearing up, but I really liked the game from the boys in front of me, and I liked my game, so I just have to keep building from it.”
“Just being healthy is huge. Everybody isn’t always 100 percent, so it’s a part of the game and it’s a tough game. It was definitely nice to hit a reset button, work on some details and work hard in the gym. We have a wonderful staff, whether it’s the medical team or the strength coaches to get me in good shape. It’s just great to be back and competing again with the guys.”
Ivan Provorov hit for a double for the Flyers, and Kevin Hayes added a single marker in the loss.
“We bent and we broke a little bit in the third period,” Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. “Obviously, you have to try to make some plays and try to create but you have to make sure you are not feeding their transition and their rush game, and I just think we made more mistakes in the third period than they did. They have a lot of skill and they could capitalize on those.”
The Flyers dropped to 21-36-11.
After Hayes opened the scoring in the game, Wayne Simmonds tied it up, 1-1.
“It was nice to obviously chip in and help out the cause,” Simmonds said. “Obviously, the most important thing is the two points and yeah, it was good.”
“It was a really good feed from TJ [Brodie]. I actually had one right before and I was happy I didn’t catch it because I think we would have had too many men on the ice. We gave it another shot, and he goes to me, ‘It was the ugliest breakaway move I’ve ever seen,’ and I don’t think he’s wrong.”
Timothy Liljegren and Pierre Engvall also scored for the Maple Leafs.
Morgan Rielly made the score 5-3 for Toronto, and John Tavares closed out the scoring with a power play goal in the third period for the 6-3 final.
Carter Hart made 22 saves in the Flyers loss.
“I mean we definitely beat ourselves there,” Hayes said. “They’re a great team there, a playoff team, and I thought we played better than them in the first (period). They played better than us in the second, and too many turnovers in the third that resulted in [the puck] in our net. Not enough traffic at their net.
“It starts with myself, a couple bad turnovers and being an older guy on this team, you have to lead the right way and the third period wasn’t it.”
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