Nylander and Campbell lead Toronto Maple Leafs to 5-2 win over Philadelphia Flyers

TORONTO — William Nylander set a new career-high with his 32nd goal of the season and Jack Campbell made 36 saves to pick up his 30th victory of the campaign as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 on Tuesday.

Timothy Liljegren, Jason Spezza, David Kampf and Ilya Mikheyev, into an empty net, also scored for Toronto (51-20-6). Nylander and Mikheyev added an assist apiece.

James van Riemsdyk and Ronnie Attard replied for Philadelphia (23-43-11). Travis Konecny had two assists and Martin Jones stopped 24 shots.

Auston Matthews, who leads the NHL with 58 goals and is looking to become the first player since 2011-12 to reach 60 in a season, sat out a second straight game for Toronto with an undisclosed injury.

Minus his best player, and all but cemented into the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe experimented with some different line combinations, including winger Colin Blackwell getting top-six minutes alongside John Tavares and Ilya Mikheyev.

The Leafs opened the scoring at 1:35 of the second period. Alexander Kerfoot chased down a loose puck in the Philadelphia zone before eventually feeding it in front for Liljegren to fire his fifth of the campaign upstairs on Jones.

Campbell made big stops on Konecny and Travis Sanheim a few minutes later, but couldn’t keep van Riemsdyk – who played six seasons in Toronto from 2012-2018 – at bay as he popped home his 21st at 8:07 off a scramble.

Nylander then set a personal high-water mark for goals at 13:39 when he took a cross-ice feed from Mitch Marner on a power play and fired his 32nd into the top corner. The winger has four goals and four assists in his last four games.

Toronto, which improved to 6-1-0 in seven outings without Matthews this season, pushed its lead to 3-1 with 24.8 seconds left in the period on a gorgeous passing play between three veterans. Spezza took a feed from Wayne Simmonds and then played a quick give-and-go with Mark Giordano to bury his 11th.

Campbell had to be sharp on a Philadelphia power play early in the third before Kampf made it 4-1 with his 33rd at 10:11 on a deflection that also hit a Flyers skate in front and trickled past Jones.

Attard scored a consolation goal for the visitors – his second on the season – on a bullet past Campbell’s left ear with 2:34 left in regulation. Toronto held on from there for its fourth straight win with Mikheyev sealing it with his 18th goal.

The Leafs, who set franchise records for wins (50) and points (106) in Sunday’s 4-2 home victory over the New York Islanders, forced a good pad save out of Jones on a Simmonds opportunity in the first.

Toronto got two power-play chances later in the period, but couldn’t find the range. The league’s top power-play unit ended an 0-for-17 stretch on Sunday with a 1-for-3 performance.

Blackwell then rattled Jones with a short-handed shot off the Philadelphia goaltender’s mask on a Flyers’ power play late in the period.

Toronto opens a three-game road trip Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who started the night six points back of the Leafs for second in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2022.

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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press