Matthews nets 51st goal to help Toronto defeat Flyers

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 51st goal, Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won their fourth straight with a 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.

John Tavares, Wayne Simmonds, Timothy Liljegren and Pierre Engvall also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have netted 24 goals during their streak.

Ivan Provorov had two goals and an assist and Kevin Hayes also scored for the Flyers, who have lost five of six. Philadelphia entered tied for last with New Jersey in the Metropolitan Division.

The Flyers scratched defenseman Keith Yandle, ending the NHL’s Iron Man record for consecutive games played at 989.

Matthews put Toronto ahead 3-2 with 12:19 remaining to pull within four goals of passing Rick Vaive for the club’s all-time single-season goals record. Vaive netted 54 in the 1981-82 season.

Mitchell Marner got Flyers goalie Carter Hart to commit to playing the shot, and then quickly skated around the net and passed in front to Matthews, who fired into the vacated net. He has a two-goal league lead over Edmonton Oiler Leon Draisaitl, whose team didn't play Saturday.

Matthews’ tally began a frenetic stretch of five goals in the span of about eight minutes. Engvall’s short-handed goal gave the Leafs a two-goal lead with 8:17 remaining before Provorov’s second of the night on a long slap shot pulled the Flyers within 4-3 with 7:37 left. Rielly all but iced the game with a goal from a sharp angle with 6:13 to play.

The Maple Leafs opened a four-game trip by improving to 19-12-3 away from Toronto.

STREAK SNAPPED

Yandle, 35, started his streak on March 26, 2009, with Phoenix. He passed retired center Doug Jarvis for the mark of 965 games on Jan. 25