Feb. 4 appears to be William Nylander’s own Groundhog Day.
The Toronto forward netted three goals Tuesday as the Maple Leafs defeated the host Calgary Flames 6-3.
It was the second hat trick of Nylander’s career, the first coming on Feb. 4, 2017.
“It was nice,” said Nylander, who capped the achievement with an empty-netter with 44 seconds remaining. “I mean, I didn’t really expect that to happen maybe (Tuesday). I had a lot of other games where I’ve had two goals and not been able to score. It was nice it finally went in.”
The Maple Leafs will continue their four-game Western swing Thursday night in Seattle. This will be the second and final regular-season meeting between the teams this season. Toronto defeated the visiting Kraken 4-1 on Oct. 31 as Nylander tallied twice.
Auston Matthews had three assists against Calgary, Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist and goaltender Joseph Woll made 23 saves.
“I think we just did a good job staying to our structure and sticking to our game plan,” Woll said. “There was a lot of different stuff going on with penalties, and I think we have a good structure that we rely on and then we let our playmakers go make those plays.”
Woll said he wasn’t surprised when Nylander scored on an odd-man rush late in the second period to push Toronto’s lead to 4-2.
“I mean, I was just laughing,” Woll said. “(Wednesday) in practice he scored on me every time he shot on me, so as soon as he got the puck on the 2-on-1, I’m like, ‘No question he’s going to score.’ He’s a special player. Any time the puck’s in his hands, he’s dangerous.”
The hat trick gave Nylander 33 goals for the season, second in the NHL to Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (37) through Tuesday.
The Maple Leafs played without forward Mitch Marner, who was a game-time decision with a lower-body injury. Marner leads Toronto in scoring with 70 points (16 goals, 54 assists) and is tied for fourth in the league through Tuesday.
“I thought we did a great job,” Knies said. “Obviously, (Marner is) a tremendous player and it’s going to hurt our team he can’t play, but I think guys stepped up and we did a really good job.”
The Kraken rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period Tuesday before falling 5-4 in a shootout to streaking Detroit, which won its seventh in a row.
Shane Wright scored twice and Joey Daccord made 36 saves for Seattle, which is 1-2-1 on its five-game homestand that concludes Thursday.
“Really proud of our compete there, and to be able to come back, score two in the third and force the extra time, get the extra point, shows a lot about our character as a team,” Wright said. “It’s obviously not a great end result, but I’m really proud of the way we fought there in the third.”
Matty Beniers also scored for the Kraken. Beniers was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft and Wright went No. 4 in 2022.
“They’re a big part of our team,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “To see Matty and the way he’s grown in the last 20 games and to see Shane keep stepping forward and being on the scoresheet repeatedly and getting big goals, power-play goal a couple of games ago, and (Tuesday) both those goals are huge for us in the game and they’re coming from our young guys. It’s good.”
–Field Level Media
