Matthews hat trick lifts Maple Leafs past Flames to end 4-game skid

Auston Matthews had three goals and an assist to help the Toronto Maple Leafs hold on for a 4-3 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

Mitchell Marner scored, and William Nylander and Pontus Holmberg each had two assists for the Maple Leafs (22-13-8), who ended a four-game losing streak. Martin Jones made 23 saves.

“I think it’s a nice win for us to get, knowing how we’ve been playing the past couple of games, having leads and losing games,” Nylander said. “I think it was a good game for us. I don’t think we’re too worried about it. We know what we have to do to win games.”

Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri and Andrew Mangiapane scored, and Dan Vladar made 29 saves for the Flames (21-19-5), who had a season-long four-game winning streak end.

“We let a couple guys beat us tonight, and it was just a little bit of a drop in our situational awareness,” Calgary forward Blake Coleman said. “I’ll be better this weekend, and I expect everybody else to look in the mirror and be the same.”

Sharangovich gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 10:52 of the first period with a deflection of Rasmus Andersson’s point shot. Sharangovich has seven goals in his past five games.

Kadri fanned on a one-timer in the slot on the power play, but the shot deflected off Toronto defenseman Mark Giordano and through Jones’ legs for a 2-0 lead at 15:23.

“We played with some energy in the first,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. “They get that late goal, gives momentum to them, and they bring that into the second period.”

Matthews pulled a one-handed pass through his skates and to his stick before shooting top corner over Vladar’s glove to cut Calgary’s lead to 2-1 at 18:24 of the first period.

His goal came 1:36 after Backlund hit the post on a shot off the rush.

“I thought it was big,” said Matthews, who leads the NHL with 37 goals. “I don’t think the first period, kind of start, was very good. I thought we were a little bit sluggish. Obviously, they come out pretty hot and score two, just to cut it to one before the second and get in the locker room and regroup and take a deep breath and get back out there and play, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Matthews scored again to tie it 2-2 at 4:08 of the second period when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Nylander during a delayed penalty.

Marner put Toronto ahead 3-2 at 7:44 when he took a return cross-ice pass from Nylander and shot past Vladar on a 4-on-3 power play.

Connor Zary looked to have tied it at 8:39 of the third, but the Maple Leafs successfully challenged for a hand pass prior to the goal.

“It sucks, but those are the rules,” Andersson said. “You can challenge. It is what it is. But we don’t lose the game there. We lose the game in the second period. Way too many turnovers in the neutral zone and against a team like that, if you give Matthews the pinky, he takes the whole hand. That’s the way he is. He’s a hell of a player and he showed that today.”

Matthews completed his fourth hat trick of the season when he backhanded a rebound of Matthew Knies’ shot for a 4-2 lead at 13:39.

“It’s fun to watch,” Jones said. “It’s pretty impressive. It always feels like even when we’re down two in the first, we’re never really out of a game because we have those weapons that can dig us out of those holes.”

Mangiapane made it 4-3 at 17:53 after video review determined that the puck hit Toronto defenseman Timothy Liljegren’s stick before crossing the goal line after Mangiapane kicked it.