Not without difficulty, the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to finish on a high note before the holiday break on Thursday afternoon in a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Arena.
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Forwards William Nylander and Mitch Marner distinguished themselves with respectively a goal and two assists and a goal and an assist.
However, the seventh victory in 10 games will not have been easy for the team from the Queen City against one of the worst teams on the circuit.
In the first period, even though they only fired three shots on Ilya Samsonov’s net, the Flyers took the lead. On the power play, early in the game, defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s slap shot ended up behind the Russian goaltender.
Marner then took matters into his own hands in the second period to overcome Carter Hart. His shot was first skilfully redirected by Calle Jarnkrok, to leave the Pennsylvania goalkeeper no chance. At the end of the period, on the power play, Marner hit the target for the 13th time this season with a slap shot from the blue line.
There were only 33 seconds left in the third period when Michael Bunting scored on a sequence prepared by Auston Matthews and William Nylander. The latter then stood out in the enclave to register his 20th of the campaign, which would become the winning goal.
A good scare
The “Leafs”, however, gave fans a good scare in the last minutes of the game.
Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee responded back-to-back in less than two minutes. Farabee missed a golden chance to tie the game moments later. Toronto was still able to resist in the last moments.
The Maple Leafs will enjoy a few days off before resuming action Dec. 27 in St. Louis against the Blues.