Maccelli scores twice, helps Maple Leafs top Oilers for 3rd straight win

EDMONTON -- Matias Maccelli scored twice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who scored two power-play goals in 31 seconds in the third period to pull away for a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist, and Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves for the Maple Leafs (27-21-9), who were coming off a 4-2 victory at the Calgary Flames on Monday and won their final three games before the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

"Obviously, right now, points are at a premium and we need every point that we can get," Stolarz said. "So, anytime you can go out there and give your team a chance to win, make some big saves and do your job back there, it felt good to be able to do that, and I’m happy for all the guys."

Jake Walman and Kasperi Kapanen scored, and Connor Ingram made 22 saves for the Oilers (28-21-8), who went 4-4-0 on an eight-game homestand.

“You want to have a better result than .500 at home, obviously,” Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “There are adjustments I think our team can make. We have a big game (Wednesday) against Calgary, and we have to learn from this.”

Maccelli gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 7:12 of the second period, deflecting a point shot from Jake McCabe short side on Ingram.

“They were good tonight, but we played a solid two-way game, too,” Maccelli said. “We had the right mindset coming into the game, and we executed and stayed faithful.”

Walman tied it 1-1 at 11:09, getting the puck following an offensive zone face-off and sending a point shot past the glove of Stolarz.

Knies responded just nine seconds later to put Toronto back in front 2-1. Ingram played the puck from behind the net to Nurse in the corner, where the defenesman had it go by him and instead wind up on the stick of Nicolas Roy. The Maple Leafs forward then took advantage of the misplay by centering a pass to Knies, who flipped it to his backhand and put it just out of reach of Ingram’s glove.

“I think we came out skating, played physical, played hard and drew some key penalties in the third to run away with it,” Knies said. “It does a lot (winning these three). It kind of [stinks] that there’s a stop to it now because I thought we were really starting to click there, but it’s good because I think a lot of us need a refresher just to heal up and get some rest and try to come back with that same mentality.”

Kapanen tied it 2-2 at 4:27 of the third period. He took a drop pass in the slot from Vasily Podkolzin, deked in on Stolarz and put a shot top shelf over the goalie's glove.

“We can't be letting in five, six, seven, goals per game, it's just too much. It's just not the right way to win,” Kapanen said. “I feel like we're just always trailing by two, three goals and they've scored four or five. As a good team, we can't be doing that moving forward, and it's something that we've addressed.

“You know, it doesn't happen overnight. We're trying, guys. We're trying, and we want to be better defensively, but that's just the way it went tonight.”

John Tavares put Toronto ahead 3-2 on a 5-on-3 power play at 7:42, taking a pass from William Nylander for a backdoor tap-in.

On the ensuing 5-on-4 power play, Maccelli made it 4-2 at 8:13. He scored his second of the night with a snap shot from the bottom of the right circle past Ingram’s glove.

“Overall tonight, only two (puck related) penalties that we take, and that’s usually a pretty good night, but just the timing was tough,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I thought we did a lot of good things, especially in the second period. We're probably unfortunate just to get one goal, especially in the second, and when we finally did get that goal, it was erased immediately with them responding to it.”

Bobby McMann scored into an empty net at 17:22 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Edmonton went 0-for-1 on the power play. Toronto was 2-for-2. ... The Oilers have given up 30 goals in their past six games. ... Oilers forwards Connor McDavid (10 points), Leon Draisaitl (11), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (four) each had his point streak end at four games. ... Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard had his point streak end at five games (four goals, eight assists).