Feb. 4 seemed to be a special day for William Nylander. The Toronto forward scored three goals on Tuesday, leading the Maple Leafs to a 6-3 win over the Calgary Flames.
This was Nylander’s second career hat trick, with his first coming on Feb. 4, 2017.
“It was nice,” Nylander said, capping off the feat with an empty-net goal with 44 seconds left. “I didn’t really expect that to happen maybe (Tuesday). I’ve had a lot of games where I scored twice and couldn’t get that third. It was nice that it finally went in.”
The Maple Leafs will continue their four-game Western road trip on Thursday night in Seattle. This will be the second and final regular-season game between the teams. Toronto won 4-1 against the Kraken on Oct. 31, with Nylander scoring twice.
Auston Matthews had three assists against Calgary, Matthew Knies scored a goal and had an assist, and goaltender Joseph Woll made 23 saves.
“We did a good job sticking to our structure and game plan,” Woll said. “There were a lot of penalties, and I think we have a solid structure to rely on, and then we let our playmakers make their plays.”
Woll wasn’t surprised when Nylander scored on an odd-man rush late in the second period to give Toronto a 4-2 lead.
“I was just laughing,” Woll said. “In practice yesterday, he scored on me every time he shot. So when he got the puck on the 2-on-1, I knew he was going to score. He’s a special player. He’s dangerous whenever the puck’s on his stick.”
The hat trick brought Nylander’s total to 33 goals for the season, second in the NHL behind 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 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. “Marner is a huge player, and it’s tough to not have him, but I think other guys stepped up, and we played really well.”
The Kraken came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period Tuesday, but lost 5-4 in a shootout to Detroit, which won its seventh straight game.
Shane Wright scored twice, and Joey Daccord made 36 saves for Seattle, which is 1-2-1 in its five-game homestand that ends Thursday.
“I’m really proud of our compete level,” Wright said. “To come back, score two in the third, and force overtime shows a lot of character. It’s not the result we wanted, but I’m proud of how we fought in the third.”
Matty Beniers also scored for the Kraken. Beniers was the second overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, and Wright was the fourth overall pick in 2022.
“They’re a big part of our team,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “It’s great to see how Matty’s grown in the last 20 games, and Shane continues to step up and score big goals, like his power-play goal a couple of games ago, and both his goals (Tuesday) were huge for us. It’s good to see our young guys contributing.”
