CALGARY, Alberta (AP) 鈥� Auston Matthews had a hat trick to push his NHL-leading goals total to 37 and added an assist in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-3 comeback victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.
Mitch Marner also scored and Martin Jones made 24 saves to help Toronto end a four-game skid and improve to 22-13-8. William Nylander and Pontus Holmberg each had two assists.
鈥淚 think it just gives us confidence to have that lead, hang onto it,鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淟ots of really good things in the third period. I don鈥檛 think we sat back too much. I thought we tried to drive play on the other half of the ice as much as possible.鈥�
Yegor Sharangovich, former Toronto forward Nazem Kadri and Andrew Mangiapane scored for Calgary, and Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots. The Flames had won a season-high four games in a row.
鈥淲e were turning the puck over too much in the neutral zone. Making it hard on ourselves and feeding them,鈥� Calgary captain Mikael Backlund said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a really highly skilled team, and if you feed them, they鈥檙e going to eventually capitalize and that鈥檚 what they did.鈥�
Late in the first period, Backlund rang a shot off the goalpost on a breakaway that would have given the Flames a 3-0 lead.
Ninety seconds later, Matthews pounced on a mishandled puck inside the blue line by Flames defenseman Nick DeSimone and ripped a shot into the top corner.
The Leafs carried that momentum into the second period by tying it at 4:08 when Matthews converted Nylander鈥檚 setup during a delayed penalty.
After Toronto surged in front at 7:44 with Marner鈥檚 19th goal on a 4-on-3 power play, Matthews completed the hat trick with 6:21 left in the period.
Vladar gloved a shot from Matthew Knies but couldn鈥檛 secure it before Matthews outmuscled DeSimone in the slot and buried a backhander.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty impressive,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚t always feels like even when we鈥檙e down two in the first we鈥檙e never really out of a game because we have those weapons that can dig us out of those holes.鈥�
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: At Vancouver on Saturday night.
Flames: Host Edmonton on Saturday night.
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The Associated Press
