Philadelphia Flyers beat Toronto Maple Leafs  2-1 in a close game

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Philadelphia Flyers win a close one beating Toronto Maple Leafs  2-1. Here is the game summary and highlights from the game played on Thursday, January 26, 2017

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

William Nylander put the Maple Leafs on the board with his 10^th goal of the season at 15:35 of the second period. He has registered 21 (8 goals, 13 assists) of his 31 points on the road this season.

Nazem Kadri had the primary assist on Nylander’s second period goal. Kadri has points (2-4-6) in four consecutive games.

Leo Komarov also registered an assist on Nylander’s goal. The Maple Leafs are 9-3-2 when Komarov records a point this season.

Curtis McElhinney made 32 saves in the loss. Toronto is now 11-3-2 when getting 30-39 saves from their goaltender.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs were outshot by the Flyers by a 34-28 margin in all situations and by a 30-22 edge in shots at 5-on-5.

Philadelphia had a 66-62 lead in shot attempts in all situations and a 59-50 lead in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

William Nylander led Toronto with seven shots on goal.

Connor Carrick and William Nylander each had seven shot attempts.

ROAD SCHOLARS

The Maple Leafs are 11-7-6 on the road this season and 2-8-1 in the second leg of back-to-backs.

Toronto’s all-time record is 60-90-22-4 in 176 games against the Flyers and 26-53-8-1 in games played in Philadelphia.

Toronto is 16-9-4 against the Eastern Conference this season and 5-5-2 against the Metropolitan Division.

The Maple Leafs return to action after All-Star weekend on Jan. 31 at Dallas.

 MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

Toronto is 4-11-4 when their opponent scores first this season.

The Maple Leafs are now 1-10-2 when trailing after one period and 3-2-2 when tied after two periods.

Toronto has a 14-6-3 record when outshot by their opponents.

Maple Leafs rookies combined for one point tonight (1 goal) and have amassed 179 points (67 goals, 112 assists) in 47 games this season.

Maple Leafs forwards Matt Martin and Nikita Soshnikov started all their shifts in the neutral or defensive zone tonight.

Tyler Bozak won 7 of his 10 faceoffs in the offensive zone (70%) and was 4-for-4 on the draw against Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn.

Matt Martin led all skaters with eight hits in tonight’s game.

Nikita Zaitsev led all skaters in ice time at 25:08.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Tuesday, Jan. 31 at Dallas Stars, 8:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

Thursday, Feb. 2 at St. Louis Blues, 8:00 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Saturday, Feb. 4 at Boston Bruins, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Monday, Feb. 6 at New York Islanders, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

Tuesday, Feb. 7 vs. Dallas Stars, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On tonight’s game:

I thought we were really good in the first and then we got the four-minute power play and didn’t compete hard enough on the power play. We weren’t good there. I thought the second was fine, we scored a big goal. But, they were better than us in the third period. They played harder and a big part of that was they just won the faceoffs. We didn’t win any faceoffs in the third and they spent more time in our zone shooting the puck and getting it to the net than we did. In the end it’s disappointing because you’re two minutes away from getting a point but, in saying that, the better team, I think, when the game was on the line, won. We have a to find a way on back-to-back nights, we didn’t have enough guys good enough, long enough. That’s fair. You’re hoping but I don’t like living on hope.

On McElhinney’s play in goal:

He was outstanding. I thought he was really good in net. His two starts have been fantastic so that’s really good for us.

On if he’s proud of the team for being in a playoff spot at the All-Star break:

For sure. In saying all that, what usually happens is you get greedy. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. You get used to wanting to win every night and you should. It’s disappointing when you don’t. It’s disappointing when you don’t play as good as you could. That’s the part for me tonight is we didn’t have enough guys playing hard enough. In the end a lot of the games in the National Hockey League have nothing to do with skill – it has to do with will and determination at the end. They showed more.

TYLER BOZAK (57% FACEOFF PERCENTAGE, 16:57 TOI)

On not earning a point in tonight’s game:

It’s tough. We gave ourselves a chance to win. I think our power play has been scoring a lot and we didn’t find a way tonight. I think that was ultimately the difference.

On being in a playoff spot at the All-Star break:

It feels good. Obviously we’re not where we want to be yet, we’ve got a lot of things to improve on. To be in that position right now, it feels good, but we’ve just got to keep getting better.

On why he thinks the team can be a playoff team:

I think we’ve proved it. We’ve been able to win on the road; we’ve been able to win at home. We’ve gone up against some really good tough teams, some teams that have won a lot in the past, and hung around with them. I think we’ve been in the majority of the games this year and have a chance to win. That’s the most important thing.

CURTIS McELHINNEY (32 SAVES)

On disappointment in not earning a point tonight:

Yeah, certainly. I think we’ve been playing really well as of late, just couldn’t find that second one tonight. It was a tough goal to give up in the last five minutes.

On Philadelphia’s push in the third period:

I think it’s one of those things. It’s a three [games] in four [nights] so you’ve got to play smart hockey, make smart decisions and just get pucks deep. We knew they were going to put a push in there. Everybody has got a break coming up so these points are critical at this point for us. It would have been nice to come away with at least one.

On Nylander’s goal as a boost in the second:

Yeah, for sure. It was a hard goal that he earned. He went to the net and we were just throwing pucks there. It’s a simple process.

WILLIAM NYLANDER (1 GOAL, 7 SHOTS)

On tonight’s style of play:

I think it was a grind type of game. We bruised a lot of heavy shifts for both teams.

On his goal in the second period:

I just saw [Kadri] get the puck behind the net and I just tried to get to the net. He fed it through and I sort of tried to push it in.

On if the team is happy with their spot in the standings at the break:

Of course we wanted to win but, I mean, we’re happy where we are and we want to keep going. Knowing we’re in a playoff spot going into the All-Star break is nice but we want to build off of that.

On how to build on their position after the break:

It’s keeping it simple and doing what we’ve been doing in the beginning in the past few weeks. It’s helping us win games.