Auston Matthews continued his torrid 2021-22 season and the Maple Leafs handed the Flyers a 6-3 loss.
In their return home from a 1-4-0 road trip, the Flyers unraveled during the third period Saturday night for a 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers went into second intermission knotted at 2-2 with Toronto. They allowed four goals in the third period, one of them a shorthanded marker.
The Flyers (21-36-11) have lost four straight. Their goal differential is now minus-68 on the season.
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The club received goals from Ivan Provorov (two) and Kevin Hayes.
Keith Yandle was scratched for the first time since March 2009, ending his NHL record ironman streak at 989 games.
Beloved former Flyer Wayne Simmonds, Timothy Liljegren, Auston Matthews, Pierre Engvall, Morgan Rielly and John Tavares all scored for the Maple Leafs (44-19-5).
Matthews' goal — his 51st of the season — snapped the 2-2 tie 7:41 minutes into the third period.
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It was all Toronto from there.
The Maple Leafs are on a four-game winning streak, which features victories over the Panthers and Bruins.
• Defenseman Ronnie Attard, a 23-year-old third-round pick from 2019, became the third Flyer to make his NHL debut in the last 10 days, joining Noah Cates and Hayden Hodgson.
The Flyers are retooling and want to get as good of a read as they can on potential pieces for next season.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Attard moves well for his size and developed a shot at the USHL and college ranks.
"He's a guy that we want to get a real good look at here," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said Thursday. "It's not going to be one of those situations where he goes out and makes a mistake and doesn't get back on the ice; we're going to to give him a good opportunity to play."
In his debut, Attard had a minus-4 rating. He played 15:53 minutes.
Simmonds snuck behind Attard and Nick Seeler and scored on a breakaway to tie the game at 1-1 in the middle frame.
Toronto turned the game upside down in the third period.
"Obviously a little bit nerves at the beginning," Attard said. "First game, got the first shift under my belt and felt pretty good for the first two periods. That's a good hockey team we just played. If you're lackadaisical for a second or don’t have that attention to detail, they’re going to put the puck in the back of the net and I learned that tonight."
Seeler exited the game early in the final stanza with an apparent injury.
• After missing Tuesday's game for precautionary reasons because of a minor injury, Carter Hart surrendered six goals on 28 shots.
The 23-year-old had no chance on Matthews' goal. The Flyers allowed a barrage of odd-man rushes in the third period, including the play on Engvall's shorthanded marker.
"I don’t think that we lost this game because of Carter tonight," Yeo said. "We all have a job to do; his job is to make saves. There was some real big saves that he made there and that’s a team with a lot of skill. I’m looking at this game and I’m looking at the mistakes and the opportunities that we fed them."
Maple Leafs netminder Jack Campbell stopped 29 of the Flyers' 32 shots.
• A confident Provorov played an excellent game.
He drew the Flyers even at 2-2 during the second period when he scored off of a feed from Hayes.
Provorov was rewarded after he set up Hayes' game-opening goal earlier in the frame. The 25-year-old defenseman made a sharp play by spinning and whipping the puck back toward the net. Hayes was right there on the doorstep to bury it.
Since the start of February, Provorov had three points (all assists) in 23 games.
He looked much more like his dynamic self Saturday, finishing with a three-point game.
For Hayes, he has been a point-per-game player since returning from an infection in his groin area.
The 29-year-old center has put up five goals and nine assists through 14 games after rejoining the lineup March 5.
• Zack MacEwen, who wears Simmonds' old No. 17, dropped the gloves with the 33-year-old power forward late in the third period.
Give MacEwen credit for the courage. Simmonds won the bout in convincing fashion. Not many beat him.
• Scott Laughton has been cleared after recovering from a concussion he suffered March 10.
Yeo said Laughton is "itching" to play. Sunday is a possibility for his return.
Nate Thompson was back in the lineup Saturday following a lengthy recovery from shoulder surgery he underwent in late November. He played 12:15 minutes.
In the morning, Yeo did not think Travis Konecny was going to play because of a sickness. But Konecny was able to give it a go and finished scoreless in 13:08 minutes.
Sean Couturier has continued his on-ice rehab in his recovery from season-ending back surgery.
• The Flyers are right back at it Sunday when they visit the Rangers (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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