Gridin scores twice as Flames beat Maple Leafs 5-2

Matvei Gridin scored twice and Devin Cooley made 26 saves as the Calgary Flames beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Monday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames, who won their fourth straight game and went 4-0-0 on their homestand. Joel Farabee and Martin Pospisil added empty-net goals in the third period.

Easton Cowan and William Nylander scored for Toronto, which saw a four-game winning streak end. Sergei Bobrovsky took the loss in his 800th NHL start.

Gridin opened the scoring at 10:05 of the first period and Backlund made it 2-0 at 11:50. Backlund, who returned after missing two games with an upper-body injury, collected his 609th career point, tying Johnny Gaudreau for fifth on Calgary’s all-time list, NHL.com reported.

Gridin scored on the power play 25 seconds into the second period to make it 3-0. Cowan cut the deficit at 12:54, and Nylander made it 3-2 at 6:06 of the third period with an assist from Jack Roslovic. Farabee sealed it into an empty net at 18:35, and Pospisil added another at 19:21.

Toronto’s Auston Matthews had an assist on the Nylander goal for his 800th career NHL point, the fastest in franchise history at 703 games. Yahoo Sports reported that it was Calgary’s first win over the Leafs since Feb. 10, 2022. Toronto had won the previous eight meetings.

The Leafs lost forward Kirill Marchenko to a lower-body injury early in the second period, and he did not return. His status was not immediately known.

The Flames are 5-6-0 and visit the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night, a team they will face fresh off a 4-1 win over the Red Wings. The Leafs, 7-5-2, play at the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday after their 7-2 win over Edmonton.

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Via NHL.com and Yahoo Sports.