By The Canadian Press

NHL roundup: Matthews, Joshua score 8 seconds apart, Leafs rally past Blackhawks 3-2

Dec 17, 2025 | 12:54 AM

TORONTO (AP) — Dakota Joshua batted in a rebound with 3:01 left, just eight seconds after Auston Matthews tied it, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied past the Chicago Blackhawks for a 3-2 win.

Third-period goals by Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Matthews and Joshua erased Toronto’s two-goal deficit and completed a wild comeback.

Joseph Woll made 23 saves and the Maple Leafs earned just their second victory this season after trailing after two periods.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

AVALANCHE 5 KRAKEN 3

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SEATTLE (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon scored twice for an NHL-leading 28 goals this season and added an assist as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken for their third straight win.

MacKinnon also extended his point streak to six games as Colorado won for the fifth time in that span. The Avalanche, who have the league’s best record, have earned a point in 24 of the last 25 games.

Artturi Lehkonen, Samuel Girard and Brock Nelson also scored for the Avalanche. Mackenzie Blackwood had 34 saves.

Chandler Stephenson, Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle scored goals for the Kraken, who have lost eight of their last nine. Philipp Grubauer stopped 33 shots.

BLUE JACKETS 4 DUCKS 3 (OT)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Adam Fantilli scored with 1:28 left in overtime to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets to a win over the Anaheim Ducks, snapping a five-game losing streak.

Zach Werenski scored twice and added an assist in his 600th NHL game, Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist, and Kent Johnson added two assists. Jet Greaves stopped 24 shots for his first win since Nov. 20.

Mikael Granlund had a goal and an assist, Ryan Strome and Jackson LaCombe also scored goals, and Ryan Poehling recorded two assists for Anaheim. Ville Husso made 24 saves as the Ducks dropped three games on their five-city road trip.

BRUINS 4 MAMMOTH 1

BOSTON (AP) — Morgan Geekie scored a pair of goals and Jeremy Swayman stopped 20 shots to help the Boston Bruins beat Utah for their fifth win in their last six games.

Casey Mittelstadt and Michael Eyssimont also scored goals, and David Pastrnak had a pair of assists as the Bruins returned from a three-game road trip to open a five-game homestand with a victory.

Barrett Hayton scored for the Mammoth, and Vitek Vanecek made 19 saves.

CANUCKS 3 RANGERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Evander Kane and Liam Ohgren scored and Thatcher Demko made 23 saves as the league-worst Vancouver Canucks defeated the New York Rangers.

Conor Garland added an empty-net goal as Vancouver, which had won only three of its previous 12 games, smothered the Rangers from start to finish. New York is 4-10-3 at home.

Kane scored his sixth goal 1:46 into the contest, when he beat Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick after defenceman Matthew Robertson’s path was briefly blocked by a linesman.

FLYERS 4 CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — Carl Grundstrom and Bobby Brink scored in the final minute of the first and second period, respectively, leading the Philadelphia Flyers to a win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Trevor Zegras, playing in his 300th NHL game, ran his goal streak to a career-high four games as Philadelphia (17-9-6) snapped a season-worst three-game skid.

Travis Konecny added an empty-net goal for the Flyers, and Dan Vladar made 21 saves. Vladar has won both his starts this season in Montreal.

Alexandre Texier scored his second goal in two games for the Canadiens (17-12-4), who have dropped four of six.

OILERS 6 PENGUINS 4

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Leon Draisaitl had four assists and became the fourth-fastest active player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Draisaitl, who hit the milestone in the first period on a secondary assist, became the 103rd player in NHL history, first German-born player and fifth in franchise history to reach 1,000 points. He has 416 goals and 587 assists in 824 games for 1,003 points.

Connor McDavid scored twice, including a spectacular power-play goal and added two assists, as he and Draisaitl improved to 23-0-0 when both have at least three points in a regular-season game.

RED WINGS 3 ISLANDERS 2

DETROIT (AP) — Alex DeBrincat scored two power-play goals in the third period as the Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Islanders.

DeBrincat has eight goals and 13 points in his last eight games for the Red Wings, who have won five of six. John Gibson made 16 saves to win his sixth straight start.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 18 shots for the Islanders, who had won three in a row and seven of eight. New York was going for a season sweep, having outscored Detroit 12-2 in the first two meetings.

SHARKS 6 FLAMES 3

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Macklin Celebrini scored a jaw-dropping goal and added an empty-netter and two assists to become the fastest San Jose player to reach 50 points in a season as the Sharks beat the Calgary Flames.

Celebrini assisted on two goals in the first period and then took over the game in the third. First he took a pass from Collin Graf, spun without breaking stride and beat Dustin Wolf for his 17th goal of the season to make it 4-2.

The empty-netter put it away, giving the 19-year-old Celebrini 51 points in San Jose’s 34th game of the season. That’s three games faster than any other Sharks player reached the 50-point mark, with Erik Karlsson, Joe Thornton and Owen Nolan all doing it in 37 games. The only teenagers to reach 50 points earlier in an NHL season were Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky.

WILD 5 CAPITALS 0

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Vladimir Tarasenko had two goals and an assist, Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves, and Kirill Kaprizov became Minnesota’s career leader in power-play goals in the Wild’s win over the Washington Capitals.

The Wild are an NHL-best 17-3-2 since Nov. 1 and 3-0 since acquiring defenceman Quinn Hughes on Friday via one of the NHL’s biggest blockbuster trades in recent memory.

Washington has lost three in a row and been outshot 183-134 in its past five games.

Kaprizov’s backhand score with 7:09 left in the second period moved him past Zach Parise for the club’s career lead in power-play goals with 70. It was also Kaprizov’s 206th career goal, surpassing Mikko Koivu for second in the team’s 25-year history.

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The Associated Press