TORONTO — Sean Couturier scored the winner in the shootout as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux also scored in the shootout for the visitors, while William Nylander was the only successful Leaf.
Phillipe Myers and Oscar Linbold had the goals in regulation for Philadelphia (9-5-2). Brian Elliott stopped 38 shots through 65 minutes of action.
Nylander, with a goal and an assist, and Travis Dermott replied for Toronto (9-5-3). Frederik Andersen made 30 stops for the Leafs, who saw their season-high three-game winning streak come to an end. Auston Matthews added two assists.
Toronto also lost star winger Mitch Marner to an ankle injury early in the second period.
Kevin Hayes hit the post in overtime for Philadelphia before Ivan Provorov deked Andersen to the ice, but sent his backhand wide. Toronto got a power play late in the extra period, but Elliott was there to deny Nylander.
The Flyers entered with points in their last four (3-0-1), including last Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Leafs in Philadelphia that went 11 rounds. Toronto, meanwhile, came in 4-1-1 over its last six.
Both teams were playing the first game of a back-to-back — Toronto is at Chicago on Sunday, while Philadelphia visits Boston.
After Andersen robbed Andy Andreoff and Michael Raffl in quick succession on a sequence that had fans at Scotiabank Arena chanting the Toronto netminder’s name to keep the Leafs down only 2-1 early in the third, Nylander tied it less than a minute later.
Matthews appeared set to try the lacrosse move where a player picks the puck up on his stick and attempts to tuck it in the top corner from behind Elliott’s net, but instead slid a pass to Nylander in front for his fifth at 3:58.
Trevor Moore nearly won it for the Leafs with three minutes left in regulation only to see his shot from in tight ring off the crossbar.
Marner was hurt after falling awkwardly on his right leg off the second period’s opening faceoff. The 22-year-old struggled mightily to get to the bench and went the locker room. He returned during a television timeout to test his ankle, but once again headed off and was done for the night.
Philadelphia led 2-0 after the first and nearly stretched that advantage to three after Toronto turned the puck over early in the second, but Andersen robbed Couturier in front.
The Leafs got on the board at 10:11 of the second when Nylander found Dermott off the rush and he ripped his first past Elliott’s glove.
Dermott, who suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery in last spring’s playoffs, was playing just his fifth game of 2019-20 and scored his first goal since early February.
The Flyers went to the power play later in the period, but Ilya Mikheyev nearly tied it for the Leafs on a great chance Elliott snagged before Jake Muzzin was denied by the Philadelphia netminder on a Toronto man advantage to take a one-goal edge to the third.
Philadelphia opened the scoring at 8:08 the first after some sustained Toronto pressure. The Flyers broke the other way, with former Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk finding a late-arriving Myers, who made no mistake on a bullet shot through a partial screen that was in and out of Andersen’s net in a flash.
The second goal of the rookie defenceman’s NHL career was also the 12th time in 17 games Toronto has fallen behind 1-0 this season.
The visitors connected on their second power play late in the first when Linblom deflected Travis Konecny shot to the side off the net off his own leg and in past Andersen for his eighth at 1:32.
Notes
Kade Foster, the 11-year-old from Corner Brook, N.L., who made waves on social media last weekend when none of his friends showed up to his birthday party, was in attendance with his family as guests of the Leafs and Air Canada. Kade’s father tweeted about his son’s disappointing birthday, tagging the team, Marner and John Tavares in the post. The players, team, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a number of celebrities responded with an outpouring of online support. The family also attended Saturday’s morning skate, got a tour of Toronto’s locker room and took a picture with the team. … Leafs winger Andreas Johnsson played the 100th game of his NHL career.
___
Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press