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TORONTO (AP) – Mitch Marner scored twice in a second-period surge as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Utah Hockey Club 3-2 on Sunday night to extend their winning streak to four.
The victory, in the lone NHL game on the schedule, came in the first meeting between Toronto and Utah.
William Nylander scored his 14th for Toronto.
Logan Cooley and Jack McBain scored for Utah, which was playing its first back-to-back games of the season after snapping a three-game losing streak Saturday in Pittsburgh, 6-1.
“First back to back of the season,” said Utah head coach Andrè Tourigny. “The boys, they fought hard. They deserve credit for that. But, we need to learn to manage the game better. Learn to make sure we have a short shift, especially on the back to back, and we’re playing the right way.”
Toronto captain Auston Matthews ( upper-body injury ) missed his eighth game, but there is hope he may return this week. The Leafs have gone 7-1-0 in his absence.
Alex Nylander, signed this week from the AHL Marlies, made his Leafs debut and saw time on the power play with older brother William in the first period. The Nylanders become the 13th set of brothers to play for the franchise and the fifth set to play together for the Leafs.
With bad traffic in Toronto, the Nylander brothers took the subway to the rink. Utah’s players also went to Plan B, leaving their bus to walk the final few blocks to the Scotiabank Arena.
Down 1-0 after a sluggish opening period, Toronto turned it up in the second with three goals in 5 minutes, 35 seconds. The Leafs outshot Utah 16-6 in the period.
“It’s tough,” McBain said. “You know, back to back games are tough. But, no excuse. I think our first and third periods were great, but we let off the gas a bit in the second and it cost us.”
Marner has six goals and eight assists in the eight games that Matthews has been out. He now has multipoint games in seven of his last eight outings, upping his season total to 11. Only Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov has more multipoint games, with 12.
Utah wraps up its four-game road trip Wednesday in Montreal.