Matthews, Maple Leafs hold off Flames to stay hot

CALGARY -- Auston Matthews scored the game-winner at 2:42 of the third period in his return from injury, helping the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-2 victory against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday.

Morgan Rielly had three assists, and Jack Campbell made 31 saves for the Maple Leafs (5-2-0), who have won four of their past five games.
"I think it was a pretty ugly game, to be honest, for us," Matthews said. "There were a lot of things we could've done better. I think we had good sequences in the game and obviously a couple solid lucky bounces that went our way today. We'll definitely take them. There will be some stuff we can clean up."
Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves for the Flames (2-1-1), who play the Maple Leafs again here Tuesday.
"It's kind of like a mini playoff series," Markstrom said. "You want to, for sure, start by winning the first one and keep building off that, but now we've got a big game in a couple days against a good team. We've got to play tight; we're creating chances ... we're not worried."
Wayne Simmonds put Toronto up 2-1 with 32 seconds remaining in the second period. His first goal with the Maple Leafs was his 100th power-play goal and 500th point in the NHL.

"It's pretty big," Simmonds said. "It felt a lot better that we got the two points. Obviously, it's nice to get it out of the way, but it's even nicer to get the two points. Not too happy with our performance, we've got a few things we've got to fix, but a good two points to start off the (four-game) road trip."
Rielly's shot deflected off Matthews and Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson to make it 3-1 at 2:42 of the third period.
With the goal, Matthews has scored against all 30 other current NHL teams. He missed a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Friday because of an upper-body injury.
"I felt like I made some good progress over the couple of days," Matthews said. "I came to the rink a little bit early, tested it out. It felt fine."
Tkachuk scored on the power play to cut it to 3-2 at 6:33.
"Tight game," said Flames forward Elias Lindholm, who assisted on Tkachuk's goal and has five points in a four-game point streak (two goals, three assists) to start the season. "Today they had the bounces and I didn't think we got to their net enough, but we've got to fix that on Tuesday."
Jake Muzzin gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 7:46 of the first period with a wrist shot from the point that deflected off Calgary forward Dominik Simon.
"It's some unlucky bounces, but I think we're playing good," Markstrom said. "If we keep working hard in practice and keep working hard in games and doing the right things, hopefully these bounces are going to stop. We've just got to work a little bit harder and create our own luck."
Mitchell Marner assisted on Muzzin's goal to reach 300 points in the NHL. Among players to debut with the Maple Leafs, only Syl Apps (284 games) and Charlie Conacher (294 games), reached 300 points faster than Marner (307 games).
Monahan tied it 1-1 at 12:53 of the second when he banked his own rebound off Campbell. Monahan has scored a point in each of Calgary's four games (six points; two goals, four assists).

"I guess you wouldn't chalk it up as a pretty one, but we battled and it builds a lot of character to come away with a win like that," Campbell said. "We just look at it as big picture. We got out of here with a big win and we'll be fresh for the next game."
NOTES: Maple Leafs defenseman TJ Brodie played 22:19 in his first game against the Flames since signing a four-year, $20 million contract with Toronto on Oct. 9. He played his first 10 NHL seasons for Calgary. … Johnny Gaudreau assisted on Monahan's goal and has scored five points in a four-game point streak (two goals, three assists). … Flames forward Dillon Dube didn't play because of a lower-body injury. He is day to day.