Last night, on the heels of back-to-back 4-0 shutouts from goalie Frederik Andersen against the Calgary Flames and the Detroit Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs breezed into Philadelphia to play the Flyers. With Steve Mason in goal, he also blanked the New York Rangers 2-0 in a rare Broadway victory at Madison Square Garden.
The Flyers started the game playing rather flat and as a result were outshot by the Leafs early on by a 5-2 margin.
With 12 minutes and 15 seconds left in the first period, right winger Wayne Simmonds, the lone representative at this weekend’s NHL All-Star Game on Sunday in Los Angeles, scored his 21st goal of the season on a breakaway. The goal was followed up with a successful four-minute penalty kill to defensemen Ivan Provorov for high sticking center Tyler Bozak.
At 15:35 of the second period, after a momentary lapse in concentration by Philadelphia, forward William Nylander found his own rebound, off of Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth, by muscling through bodies in front and jammed home the loose puck in the crease to even the score at one.
After 40 minutes of play, the Flyers and the Leafs were not only deadlocked on the scoreboard at 1-1 but they were also tied with 19 shots each.
With just 2:37 left in regulation left winger Roman Lyubimov notched his 4th goal of the season to go ahead 2-1.
The loss marked Toronto’s first regulation loss in their last 12 games.
The victory, their third straight, kept the Flyers in the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot.