Nylander Scores Twice as Campbell, Leafs Blank Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

It's been a common theme so far for the Flyers. They have certainly been getting the goaltending. 

For two periods, another game was competitive and within reach thanks to Carter Hart. For the rest of the team, the offensive struggles continued. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play and were held off the board in a 36-save shutout for Jack Campbell and the Toronto Maple Leafs, falling by a score of 3-0. 

The Maple Leafs got off to a quick start in generating chances with the help of a power play just over two minutes into the game. For most of the period, the ice was tilted in their favor and they were able to get quality shots on goal. Hart turned aside all 12 shots he faced in the first period.

The Flyers got a pair of power-play chances later in the period, but did nothing with them, generating just one shot and struggling to gain entry into the zone. Shots were 12-11 Toronto through 20 minutes.

The Flyers got the only power play of the second period and once again could not generate anything. Those three missed chances on the man-advantage proved costly when Toronto ultimately got the game's first goal in controversial fashion.

A centering pass by Jake Muzzin was deflected and floated to the front of the net before it hit the skate of William Nylander and went into the net. The official immediately waved off the goal due to a kicking motion. Then after a long review, the ruling was reversed and the goal was deemed good on a deflection, giving Toronto a 1-0 lead at 11:11 of the period.

From there, the Flyers picked up the play, ultimately out-shooting the Leafs, 11-8, in the period, but entered the third trailing by one.

It was not the start to the period the Flyers wanted, as an early penalty came back to bite them. Nylander scored his second of the game from the slot, firing a wrist shot that blew by Hart off a cross-ice feed from Nick Ritchie. 

Toronto sealed the game later in the period with a goal from the slot by Ondrej Kase, making it a 3-0 game. 

Campbell finished off the 36-save performance to seal the shutout win. Hart made 30 saves in the loss.

In addition to Nylander's two goals, Auston Matthews had a pair of assists. 

The Flyers get back on the ice on Friday night, taking on the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• TOR William Nylander (6) (Jake Muzzin, Auston Matthews) 11:11

3rd Period

• TOR Nylander (7) PP (Nick Ritchie, Matthews) 5:09
• TOR Ondrej Kase (2) (Alexander Kerfoot, David Kampf) 13:33

Game Statistics