Matvei Gridin had two goals and an assist for the Calgary Flames, who won their fourth straight game with a 5-2 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.
It was the first three-point game in the NHL for Gridin, who was selected in the first round (No. 28) of the 2024 NHL Draft.
“It all starts with us playing the right way,” said Gridin, who has three goals and two assists in his past two games. “And then because we play it the right way, we can afford to do some fun stuff with the puck. Four (wins) in a row, we’re playing great hockey right now and just keep doing that.”
Joel Farabee and Martin Pospisil each had a goal and an assist for the Flames (5-6-0), who went 4-0-0 on their four-game homestand. Matt Coronato and Simon Nemec each had two assists, and Devin Cooley made 26 saves to win his fourth consecutive start.
“We look like a faster team right now, because I think we’re doing things the right way,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “We’re playing a simpler brand of hockey and it’s resulting in more opportunities and guys are now having success, so you can see the confidence starting to grow.”
Mikael Backlund scored in his return for Calgary after missing the past two games with an upper-body injury.
“It’s always a good atmosphere against the Leafs here at home, and we wanted to quiet their fans and make it our building,” Backlund said. “The boys were excited and they were playing well, carrying over from last game.”
William Nylander and Easton Cowan scored for the Maple Leafs (7-5-2), who had won four straight. Sergei Bobrovsky, who was making his 800th NHL start, made 29 saves.
“They played a pretty good, disciplined game and we put ourselves in a deficit,” Bobrovsky said. “Three goals, it’s tough to recover, but I thought that guys did a great job. We didn’t open up in the third, we didn’t cheat the game. That’s the big sign.”
Auston Matthews recorded his 800th career point (437 goals, 363 assists) with an assist for Toronto, becoming the fastest in franchise history to reach the mark (703 games).
“I think they just got to their game really quick,” Matthews said of the Flames. “They played simple. I thought we were a little bit loose with the puck halfway through the first period and just got away from what’s making us successful over the last week or so, and they definitely took advantage of it.”
Maple Leafs forward Kirill Marchenko left with a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return. He took a hit from Yegor Sharangovich and fell awkwardly to the ice before playing one more 14-second shift and leaving the game.
“I don’t have the full update,” Toronto coach Jim Hiller said. “He couldn’t come back and finish the game, so that’s never a good sign.”
Gridin gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 10:05 of the first period, snapping a shot from just below the left face-off dot into the top corner over Bobrovsky’s blocker.
“He’s just a kid having fun, and we’re having fun as a team and this hockey’s a lot of fun right now,” said Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh, who assisted on Gridin’s second goal.
Backlund extended it to 2-0 at 11:50 when he took a cross-ice pass from Coronato and scored from the left circle on a shot that also beat Bobrovsky over his blocker.
It was Backlund’s 609th career point to tie Johnny Gaudreau for fifth place on Calgary’s all-time list.
Gridin’s second goal, on the power play, made it 3-0 just 25 seconds into the second period, snapping a shot from the left circle far side past Bobrovsky’s glove.
“He’s a talented young man and he shoots the puck really well,” Huska said. “That’s one of his strengths, for sure, how he gets it off quickly and it’s hard.”
Cowan cut it to 3-1 at 12:54, redirecting a slap pass from Troy Stecher past Cooley.
“I felt like my second and third were good,” Cowan said. “That’s how I’ve been playing and that’s how I’ve got to play.”
Nylander made it 3-2 at 6:06 of the third period when he took a cross-crease pass from Jack Roslovic and lifted a shot past a diving Cooley.
Farabee and Pospisil then scored empty-net goals at 18:35 and 19:21, respectively, for the 5-2 final.
“Turned the puck over way too much,” Hiller said. “I thought, over the last four games, we’d taken that out of our game. It was there in spades tonight and you can’t win in the League if you do that, and we saw that.”
