Maple Leafs hang on 4-3 over Flyers in weekday matinee
TORONTO - Goals from Calle Jarnkrok and Mitchell Marner ignited the Toronto Maple Leafs late in the second period. They then survived a late-game scare to score a 4-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday afternoon.
In their final outing before the Christmas break, the Maple Leafs (21-7-6) increased their victory string at Scotiabank Arena to six games and a perfect 5-0 in December.
Only the Boston Bruins, who were scheduled to play the Winnipeg Jets later Thursday, have a better home record at 17-0-2 to the Maple Leafs’ 13-2-3.
The Flyers (11-16-7) arrived in Toronto with the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference.
But after the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 advantage, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee scored 83 seconds apart to make it a one-goal game with 6:36 left in the third period.
Farabee missed an open net a couple of shifts after his goal.
Toronto buzzed around the visitors before a matinee crowd of 18,908, but Flyers goalie Carter Hart stopped the first 23 shots he faced.
The 24th shot, a Jarnkrok redirect from a Marner shot, finally beat Hart with 3:10 left in the second period. Pierre Engvall, playing in his 200th career game, recorded the secondary assist on Jarnkrok’s goal.
Marner slid a shot underneath Hart’s right pad 2:47 later for Toronto’s second goal, 13 seconds into a power play.
Michael Bunting kept the good vibrations moving by completing a William Nylander to Auston Matthews passing play for a two-goal lead.
Nylander hit the 20-goal mark in the third period before Frost tucked in a wrist shot on the next shift.
The Maple Leafs outshot their opponents 34-19. Toronto backup Ilya Samsonov made 16 saves to Hart’s 30.
Hart was on a personal five-game win streak. He foiled Marner on a short-handed breakaway early in the opening period.
The Flyers then skated the other way and turned Hart’s momentum-making save into a power play goal from defenseman Tony DeAngelo on a slapshot from the high slot.
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Begin a three-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
Flyers: At Carolina on Friday night.