TORONTO — Auston Matthews scored twice early in the second period, Ilya Samosonov made 37 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday night.

Mitch Marner and Mark Giordano, into the empty net, also scored for Toronto, and Michael Bunting added two assists.

Kyle Connor scored for Winnipeg, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 shots.

The Jets, who entered as the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, carried much of the play in the first period — outshooting Toronto 16-6 in a period where Samsonov had to be on his toes — but the Maple Leafs had the best chance when Matthews pinged a shot off Hellebuyck’s crossbar on a breakaway.

Last season’s 60-goal man eventually found the range 8 seconds into the middle period when he stepped around Mark Scheifele and beat Hellebuyck five-hole off the rush.

The Maple Leafs made it 2-0 less than four minutes later when Winnipeg got caught puck-watching and Bunting found Matthews in front to rip his 24th.

DUCKS 5, BLUE JACKETS 3: Cam Fowler, Trevor Zegras and Adam Henrique each had a goal and an assist and visiting Anaheim overcame a three-goal deficit to beat Columbus to snap a five-game losing streak.

BLACKHAWKS 4, FLYERS 1: Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist, Petr Mrázek made 38 saves and Chicago won for the first time in the regular season in Philadelphia in more than 26 years.

Before Thursday, Chicago hadn’t won a regular-season game in Philadelphia since Nov. 9, 1996. The drought comes with a huge asterisk, though, as the Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup championship in 2010 in Game 6 in Philadelphia.

Reese Johnson and Tyler Johnson also scored, and Philipp Kurashev had an empty-netter for Chicago.

HURRICANES 5, WILD 2: Brent Burns, Brady Skjei and Jalen Chatfield scored to give Carolina another productive offensive outing from its defensemen and Frederik Andersen was strong in net to help the Hurricanes beat visiting Minnesota.

Burns and Skjei each scored during a three-goal second period for Carolina, and Chatfield added a third goal from a defenseman for the Hurricanes.

Carolina entered the game with 20 goals and 67 points from defensemen since Nov. 25, which was third in the NHL behind Winnipeg and the New York Rangers.

NOTES

FLYERS: Coach John Tortorella defended Russian defenseman Ivan Provorov’s decision to cite religious beliefs as his reason to boycott the team’s pregame Pride celebration.

“Provy did nothing wrong,” Tortorella said Thursday. “Just because you don’t agree with his decision doesn’t mean he did anything wrong.”

Before Tuesday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, the 26-year-old Provorov sat out warmups, during which the Flyers wore Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow tape.

Provorov is Russian Orthodox, and said after the game that he respected ” everybody’s choices.”

“My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say,” he said, declining to answer follow-up questions.

Tortorella said had “very healthy” conversations with Provorov, General Manager Chuck Fletcher and select players days ahead of the game. Provorov’s decision was not a surprise to the organization.

The first-year Flyers coach also said he never considered benching Provorov.

“Why would I bench him? Because of a decision he’s making on his beliefs and his religion?” Tortorella said. “It turned out to be a great night for Pride night.”

The Flyers, led by players James van Riemsdyk and Scott Laughton, have been staunch supporters of the LGBTQ community and launched a program in support of LGBTQ youth in the greater Philadelphia area. The Flyers also hosted a pregame skate for local LGBTQ youth, and Laughton and van Riemsdyk met after the game with about 50 people from the community.

“I don’t hold anything against anyone,” Laughton said Tuesday. “It’s nothing like that. It was an awesome night and I’m very happy we got a win on a night like this.”

Tortorella dismissed criticisms that Provorov’s actions “embarrassed the organization,” saying, “I don’t look it at like that all.”

Tortorella has coached five NHL teams and drew comparisons to his own controversy in 2016 in Columbus, when he threatened to bench any player that protested or took a knee during the national anthem. His comments came in the wake of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit or kneel during the anthem because he said the country “oppresses Black people and people of color.”

Tortorella has since said, and reiterated Thursday, he was wrong.

“I learned a lot through that experience,” Tortorella said. “My feelings toward any time of protest to the flag during the anthem, it disgusts me, to this day. It disgusts me. It shouldn’t be done. Those are my feelings. I can’t push those feelings on to someone else. So I was wrong in saying that back then. I didn’t realize I was.

“But I was went through it all, who am I to push my feelings on to someone else. Same situation here.”

The Russian Orthodox Church, like other major Eastern Orthodox branches, doesn’t perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, has been supportive of moves by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government to implement anti-LGBTQ legislation.

The NHL also champions the You Can Play Project, which aims to ensure equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation. The NHL has never had an openly gay active player. You Can Play co-founder Brian Kitts said in a statement that “religion and support for fans and teammates aren’t mutually exclusive.”

The NHL said that clubs “decide whom to celebrate, when and how” and that players “are free to decide which initiatives to support, and we continue to encourage their voices and perspectives on social and cultural issues.”

Tortorella said Provorov knew “he was going to have some blow back.”

“Provy’s not out there banging a drum against Pride night,” he said. “He felt strongly with his beliefs and he stayed with it.”

Tortorella insisted the lingering affects of Pride night would not splinter the locker room.

“Not for a second,” Tortorella said. “The meeting at the end of the game, the 15, 20 minutes we spent together was very healthy. Really good process in a very important situation. To me, it bonds the team going through something like that. I’m not concerned about speculation of a team splitting up. Not a chance.”

PANTHERS: Coach Paul Maurice was fined $25,000 by the NHL for criticizing the officiating in his team’s game at the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this week.

Maurice said he didn’t know what referees Francois St-Laurent and Pierre Lambert were doing other than it was not friendly toward his team. He called out St-Laurent in particular in his postgame comments following Florida’s 5-4 overtime loss Tuesday.

“I just explained to them that it had nothing to do with my players,” Maurice told reporters in Toronto. “It had to do with me and a relationship that I have with one of the referees. That’s what that was all about.”

Maurice was fined $5,000 in 2016 when coaching the Winnipeg Jets for criticizing St-Laurent, who did not call a penalty on a hit to the head of center Bryan Little.

Maurice lamented the schedule his team faced with tough travel and said of St-Laurent and Lambert the league then “threw those two guys at us.”

The Panthers were whistled for 10 penalties to the Maple Leafs’ six. They spent nearly 10 minutes on seven penalty kills and allowed two power-play goals as part of blowing a 4-2 lead.

Maurice said it was “hard to describe” some of the penalties, particularly a roughing call on defenseman Radko Gudas late in the second period.

“There’ll always be penalties that you take in a game you earn,” Maurice said. “There’s a whole bunch you’re not going to like at all. I thought we had the inordinate share of those.”