TORONTO — Power-play goals from Calle Jarnkrok and Mitch Marner ignited the Toronto Maple Leafs late in the second period. They then survived a late-game scare to score a 4-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday afternoon.
In their final outing before the Christmas break, the Maple Leafs (21-7-6) increased their victory string at Scotiabank Arena to six games and a perfect 5-0 in December.
Only the Boston Bruins, who were scheduled to play the Winnipeg Jets later Thursday, have a better home record at 17-0-2 to the Maple Leafs’ 13-2-3.
The Flyers (11-16-7) arrived in Toronto with the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference.
But after the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 advantage, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee scored goals 83 seconds apart to make it a one-goal game with 6:36 left in the third period.
Farabee missed an open net a couple of shifts after his goal.
Toronto buzzed around the visitors before a matinee crowd of 18,908, but Flyers goalie Carter Hart stopped the first 23 shots he faced.
The 24th shot, a Jarnkrok redirect from a Marner shot, finally beat Hart with 3:10 left in the second period. Pierre Engvall, playing in his 200th career game, recorded the secondary assistonJarnkrok’s goal.
Marner slid a shot underneath Hart’s right pad 2:47 later for Toronto’s second power-play goal.
Michael Bunting kept the good vibrations moving by completing a William Nylander to Auston Matthews passing play for a two-goal lead.
Nylander hit the 20-goal mark in the third period before Frost tucked in a wrist shot on the next shift.
The Maple Leafs outshot their opponents 34-19. Toronto backup Iyla Samsonov made 16 saves to Hart’s 30.
Hart was on a personal five-game win streak. He foiled Marner on a short-handed breakaway early in the opening period.
The Flyers then skated the other way and turned Hart’s momentum-making save into a playoff goal from defenceman Tony DeAngelo on a slapshot from the high slot.
Hart again made a nifty right-arm stop on Toronto’s Alex Kerfoot at the end of a two-on-one rush early in the second period.
Jordie Benn returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with an upper-body ailment. Rasmus Sandin was out with a neck injury suffered in the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
NEWCOMER SITS
Toronto left-winger Dryden Hunt, acquired earlier this week from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Denis Malgin, did not play against the Flyers.
He practised on the fourth line on Wednesday alongside centre Pontus Holmberg and right-winger Joey Anderson. First, however, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe wanted Hunt to become accustomed to his new surroundings.
The undrafted 27-year-old from Cranbrook, B.C. last played for the Avalanche on Dec. 17.
UP NEXT
The Maple Leafs are off until Tuesday, when they begin a three-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues. That game will be followed by stops against the Arizona Coyotes on Dec. 29 and Colorado Avalanche on New Year’s Eve.
