Gridin Scores Twice As Flames Hold Off Maple Leafs 5-2

Matvei Gridin scored twice and added an assist as the Calgary Flames built a three-goal lead, resisted a Toronto comeback and defeated the Maple Leafs 5-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday, October 26, 2026.

Devin Cooley made 26 saves for Calgary. Gridin and Mikael Backlund scored 1:45 apart in the first period, and Gridin’s power-play goal 25 seconds into the second gave the Flames a 3-0 advantage. Easton Cowan and William Nylander brought Toronto within a goal before Joel Farabee and Martin Pospisil scored into an empty net.

Farabee and Pospisil each had a goal and an assist, while Matt Coronato and Simon Nemec each supplied two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced for Toronto; Calgary’s final two goals came after he left for an extra attacker.

Calgary improved to 5-6-0 with its fourth consecutive victory. Toronto fell to 7-5-2 after its 7-2 win in Edmonton on Saturday.

Scoring summary

Gridin supplies the cushion; Toronto makes Calgary defend it

Gridin opened the scoring at 10:05 of the first period, with Pospisil and Nemec assisting. Backlund made it 2-0 at 11:50, finishing a sequence involving Coronato and Farabee. Backlund’s goal brought him to 609 career regular-season points with Calgary, tying Johnny Gaudreau for fifth in franchise history. The two goals gave separate Calgary forward groups an early contribution.

Cooley also helped preserve that lead during a Toronto power play. Calgary’s official game report described his stretching skate save on Kirill Marchenko after Nylander found Marchenko near the far post. The save kept Toronto scoreless while Calgary was killing a penalty assessed to its goaltender for playing the puck outside the permitted area.

The next goal arrived almost immediately after the second period began. Parekh found Gridin up the ice, and Gridin scored on the power play at 0:25 for a 3-0 lead. Cooley received the secondary assist. That goal became the winner, although Toronto had nearly 40 minutes to work its way back.

Cowan scored at 12:54 of the second, with Troy Stecher and Morgan Rielly assisting. Nylander cut the deficit to 3-2 at 6:06 of the third, with Jack Roslovic and Auston Matthews receiving assists. Matthews’ assist was his 800th career regular-season point, reached in his 703rd game. Calgary then had to protect a one-goal lead through most of the remaining period.

Toronto finished 0-for-2 on the power play, while Calgary converted one of five opportunities. Matthews took two third-period penalties, but the first, a faceoff violation at 7:04, coincided with a holding penalty to Brennan Othmann and produced four-on-four play. Matthews was penalized for high-sticking at 12:21. Toronto killed that Calgary power play and stayed within one goal.

The Leafs eventually brought out an extra attacker. Farabee scored into the vacated net at 18:35, assisted by Coronato and Yan Kuznetsov, and Pospisil added another empty-net goal at 19:21, with Gridin and Nemec assisting. Those two late goals widened a game that had remained 3-2 for more than 12 minutes after Nylander’s goal.

Team comparison

Cowan takes responsibility; Hiller and Matthews point to the whole lineup

Cowan identified his turnover and penalty as costly early mistakes. “those two goals are on me,” he said in his official postgame interview. He said he needed better emotional control, then tried to move on and contribute to the comeback.

Toronto coach Jim Hiller credited that accountability while rejecting the idea that Cowan alone caused the loss. “Turned the puck over way too much,” Hiller said when asked about Calgary’s early lead in his postgame availability. He said mistakes extended through the lineup, praised Bobrovsky’s saves and considered Cowan probably Toronto’s best player after the opening period.

Matthews also supported Cowan. “it’s definitely not on one guy,” the Toronto captain said in his postgame interview. He pointed to his own penalties and praised Cowan’s response. Bobrovsky said Toronto stayed with its game during the comeback, while acknowledging that the early three-goal deficit was difficult to overcome in his interview.

Hiller did not have a full postgame update on Marchenko and did not provide a return timetable.

Calgary connects confidence with simpler play

Flames coach Ryan Huska linked the improvement to cleaner decisions and a quicker game. “we’re playing a simpler brand of hockey,” he said in his postgame interview. He said doing the right things had made Calgary look faster and created more chances. Huska also credited Gridin’s hard, quick release and the movement that had helped him become more dangerous.

Parekh described a play the two young players had discussed before the faceoff that preceded Gridin’s second goal. He told Gridin to be ready if the opportunity appeared, then saw him calling for the puck and delivered the pass. “That was a fun hockey game to play in,” Parekh said in his postgame interview. He also said Calgary’s young group was learning to manage an opponent’s response after taking a substantial lead.

Gridin said the three-goal advantage felt like the right time for the Griddy celebration that followed his second goal. In his interview, he connected Calgary’s attacking freedom with playing properly first. Backlund, returning after missing two games, said the Flames had improved at settling an opponent’s pressure and pushing back. “it’s nice to put a few together here at home,” he said in his postgame interview.

Five-on-five combinations and the finishing margin

Calgary held a 24-17 edge in shots on goal over 43:50 of five-on-five play, with the teams scoring two goals apiece during that span. The remaining scoring came from Gridin’s power-play goal and the Flames’ two late empty-net goals.

Ryan Strome, Pospisil and Gridin shared 7:02 at five-on-five, producing a 9-2 shot advantage and Calgary’s opening goal. Backlund, Farabee and Coronato shared 9:05, with a 3-2 shot edge and Backlund’s goal. Bahl and Nemec were Calgary’s busiest defensive pair at 16:03, with seven shots for, six against and a 2-1 edge in goals.

Huska singled out Jake Middleton and Zach Whitecloud for their work against Matthews. Across all of their shared five-on-five minutes, the pair played 11:03, with Calgary ahead 7-2 in shots and neither team scoring.

Toronto’s most-used exact forward trio was Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime and MacEwen at 6:17, with a 4-3 shot advantage and one goal against. The Matthews, Roslovic and Cowan combination shared 5:18, while Nylander, Roslovic and Matthews were together for 3:40 and Nylander’s goal.

Toronto’s two goals came with different personnel around the scorers. Cowan scored with Colton Sissons and Gavin McKenna up front, plus Stecher and Rielly on defense. Nylander’s goal came with Matthews and Roslovic, with Dakota Mermis and Darren Raddysh on defense.

Toronto forward trios

Toronto defense pairs

Calgary forward trios

Calgary defense pairs

Player statistics

Toronto skater scoring

Toronto deployment and faceoffs

Toronto events

Calgary skater scoring

Calgary deployment and faceoffs

Calgary events

Goaltenders

Scratches

Penalties

What comes next

Toronto visits the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, October 28, at 10 p.m. EDT. Calgary visits the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place that night at 8:30 p.m. EDT.

Video and official records

• Official goal videos: select any scorer in the scoring summary above.
• NHL final game summary, scoring, penalties and dressed lineups.
• NHL event summary and player deployment.
• NHL official play-by-play.
• Toronto official shift report and Calgary official shift report.
• Toronto full postgame media availability. Individual Toronto and Calgary interviews are linked in the reaction section.