Matthews nets hat trick, Nylander scores in OT lifting Maple Leafs over Flyers 4-3
By The Associated Press on February 15, 2024.
TORONTO (AP) – Auston Matthews had a natural hat trick in the second period and William Nylander scored 54 seconds into overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. Matthews pushed his NHL-leading goals total to 45, completing his fifth hat trick of the season and 12th of his career in a 7:49 span in the second period. He’s on a 71-goal pace through 51 games, looking to become the first NHL player to hit 70 since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny each had 76 in 1992-93. Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves. Mitch Marner had three assists, and Timothy Liljegren had two. Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia. Travis Sanheim and Garnet Hathaway also scored and Samuel Ersson stopped 24 shots. CANUCKS 4, RED WINGS 1 VANCOUVER, Britsh Columbia (AP) – Elias Lindholm scored twice, Thatcher Demko made 27 saves and NHL-leading Vancouver beat Detroit for the team’s third straight victory. Nikita Zadorov scored his first goal with Vancouver, J.T. Miller added a goal and Elias Pettersson had three assists. J.T. Compher scored for Detroit, and Alex Lyon stopped 17 shots as the Red Wings lost their second in a row. The Canucks improved to 37-12-6, good for 80 points and a six-point lead over Florida, Boston and Dallas. RANGERS 7, CANADIENS 4 NEW YORK (AP) – Chris Kreider scored a hat trick, Adam Fox had four assists and Jonathan Quick made 31 saves as New York downed Montreal to match a season high with its sixth straight victory. Mika Zibanejad added a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who also got goals from Will Cuylle, Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko. Artemi Panarin added three assists. The Rangers, who equaled their season best for goals, scored four times in 4:10 during the second period after Montreal took a 1-0 lead in the first. Cole Caufield had two goals for Montreal, which has lost three of four. Jake Evans and Juraj Slafkovsky also scored for the Canadiens. SHARKS 6, FLAMES 3 CALGARY, Alberta (AP) – Filip Zadina had two goals and two assists for a career-high four points in San Jose’s victory over Calgary. Luke Kunin also scored twice, Justin Bailey had a goal and two assists for his first career multi-point game and Mikael Granlund added a goal. MacKenzie Blackwood made 31 saves. Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund and Andrei Kuzmenko scored for Calgary and rookie Dustin Wolf stopped 25 shots. The Flames have dropped two straight and have lost five of their last six at home. PANTHERS 4, SABRES 0 BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Anthony Stolarz stopped 45 shots for his seventh career shutout and Florida became the 11th NHL team to win 10 consecutive road games with the win over Buffalo. Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring midway through the first period and added an empty-netter. Anton Lundell scored by tipping in Matthew Tkachuk’s point shot on a delayed penalty with 2:44 left in the second period. Ryan Lomberg followed Verhaeghe’s empty-netter with a goal with 11 seconds remaining. Florida extended its franchise-record road winning streak that is tied for the sixth-longest among NHL teams, and two short of matching the record held by Detroit (2005-06) and Minnesota (2014-15). KRAKEN 4, BRUINS 1 BOSTON (AP) – Matty Beniers had a goal and two assists as Seattle concluded a five-game road trip with a win over Eastern Conference-leading Boston. Jordan Eberle, Eeli Tolvanen and Jared McCann also scored for Seattle. Joey Daccord stopped 36 shots to snap his three-game losing streak. Boston has dropped three straight and four of five, with all the defeats coming at home. David Pastrnak scored for the Bruins, and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves. STARS 9, PREDATORS 2 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Sam Steel scored 35 seconds after the puck dropped, and Dallas scored four goals in the first 16 minutes on the way to a rout of Nashville. The Stars’ Matt Duchene scored two goals against his old team. Another former Nashville player, Craig Smith, scored in the early flurry for the Central Division leaders. Wyatt Johnson made it 4-0 at 15:53 as he finished with two goals and two assists. Tyler Seguin and Ty Dellandrea had a goal and two assists apiece as Dallas won its third straight. Miro Heiskanen also had a goal. Cole Smith and Tommy Novak scored for Nashville. BLUES 6, OILERS 3 ST. LOUIS (AP) – Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours each had a goal and two assists and St. Louis beat Edmonton for the team’s eighth win in 10 games. Jordan Binnington made 36 saves, highlighted by two dazzling saves on Zach Hyman during an Edmonton power play in the first period. Jordan Kyrou, Torey Krug and Pavel Buchnevich each added a goal and an assist and Brandon Saad also scored for the Blues. Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Corey Perry scored for Edmonton and Connor McDavid had three assists. PENGUINS 4, BLACKHAWKS 1 CHICAGO (AP) – Sidney Crosby scored twice, Reilly Smith and Bryan Rust added goals, and Pittsburgh beat Chicago to snap a three-game losing streak. The Penguins had lost to Minnesota, Winnipeg and Florida in succession, but controlled their third road game in four starts from the outset. Crosby’s first goal came just 15 seconds into the game. Blackhawks star rookie Connor Bedard had an assist in his return after a 14-game absence because of a broken jaw. After a sluggish first period, he set up Phillipp Kurashev with a nifty pass through traffic midway through the second. Kurashev dumped it past sprawling goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. Smith made it 2-1 at 12:40 of the first, beating Arvid Soderblom with a wrist shot on the glove side. DUCKS 5, SENATORS 1 OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) – Mason McTavish scored twice against his hometown team to help Anaheim beat Ottawa. The 21-year-old McTavish grew up in nearby Carp, Ontario. He has 15 goals this season, his third with the Ducks. Frank Vatrano, Pavel Mintyukov and Cam Fowler also scored for Anaheim. John Gibson stopped all 15 shots he faced through two periods before leaving because of an upper-body injury. Lukas Dostal made 18 saves in he third period. Claude Giroux scored for Ottawa and Joonas Korpisalo made 15 saves. LIGHTNING 6, AVALANCHE 3 TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist as Tampa Bay beat Colorado. Kucherov picked up his 93rd point on a goal that made it 4-3 at 8:13 of the third. Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, second in points, increased his total to 89 with two assists. Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli and Nick Perbix also scored for the Lighting, who got 28 saves from Andrei Vasilevskiy. Defenseman Bowen Byram scored twice for the Avalanche and Artturi Lehkonen added a goal. KINGS 2, DEVILS 1 EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – Quinton Byfield scored on a power play with 5:37 left and Los Angeles rebounded from a seven-goal loss to beat New Jersey. Anze Kopitar scored a short-handed goal and David Rittich made 27 saves as the Kings won for only the fifth time in their last 20 games (5-9-6). Tyler Toffoli scored on a power play for New Jersey, which had won two in a row. Nico Daws was outstanding in goal, making 27 saves, including sensational glove stops on Kopitar in the first period and Adrian Kempe in the second. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl 62-61
