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For one game, at least, the Maple Leafs didn’t require the services of Mitch Marner to find success.
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Not when William Nylander is filling the net with consistency.
With Marner out of the lineup for the first time in 2024-25 as he nurses a lower-body injury, Nylander recorded the second hat trick of his National Hockey League career, driving the Leafs to a 6-3 win against the Flames in Calgary.
Nylander scored his third goal in the final minute, putting the puck into an empty Flames net at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday night. His other NHL hat trick came exactly eight years earlier in a 6-5 Leafs win in Boston against the Bruins.
That’s nine goals in the past eight games for Nylander, who has 33 on the season. Only Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, with 37 goals, has more in the NHL.
Playing in his 600th career game in the NHL, Leafs captain Auston Matthews had three assists as the Leafs won for the ninth time in 11 games in Calgary.
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The Leafs have won the first two games of their four-game trip, which continues on Thursday in Seattle against the Kraken.
Joseph Woll made 23 saves for his 19th win.
Matthew Knies scored his 20th goal of the season early in the third, and the Flames’ Joel Farabee answered 18 seconds later.
The Leafs scored four goals in the second period to carry a 4-2 lead into the third.
The Flames’ goal in the second tied the game 2-2, and like their goal that made it 1-0 in the first, it came during a 5-on-3 power play.
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Yegor Sharangovich got a piece of a MacKenzie Weegar shot to bring the Flames even at 5:58. Matt Coronato had scored during a two-man advantage at 14:16 of the first.
The Leafs got rolling in the second when Nylander scored on a power play at 2:36. A mere 41 seconds later, the Leafs were back on the power play when John Tavares went to his backhand to beat Flames goalie Dustin Wolf, putting the Leafs up 2-1.
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After Sharangovich scored, Bobby McMann scored the first five-on-five goal of the game at 12:28 of the second to restore a one-goal Toronto lead. McMann snapped the puck past Wolf for his 16th goal, one more than his career-high of 15 of last season.
Nylander scored his second goal of the night when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and beat Wolf with a low shot.
Each team had a goal in the first period that was disallowed.
Tavares thought he gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead at 6:30, but a review determined that he knocked the puck past Wolf with a high stick.
At 8:09, Farabee slipped the puck into the net, but Leafs coach Craig Berube challenged for goalie interference. Berube won his case when it was determined via review that Jonathan Huberdeau interfered with Woll.
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