Polak, Andersen lead the Maple Leafs past Calgary

CALGARY, ALBERTA » Roman Polak scored his first goal of the season and Frederik Andersen made 19 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Tuesday night.

The game was scoreless until late in the first period when Polak gave the visitors a lead they would not relinquish with a fluke goal that pinballed off two Flames on the way into the net.

Polak’s slap shot from the blue line first deflected off Mark Jankowski and then, as it was going well wide of the Calgary net, it deflected off the knee of Travis Hamonic and straight past goaltender Mike Smith.

Nikita Zaitsev, Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov, with an empty-netter, also scored for Toronto. The Leafs improved to 8-2-1 in their last 11 and are 4-0-1 in their last five road games.

Michael Stone scored for Calgary, which was kicking off a four-game home stand.

Toronto extended its lead to 2-0 at 12:36 on another deflection off a Flame. This time, it was Zaitsev’s 30foot wrist shot that ticked off the stick of Mikael Backlund and slipped through Smith’s pads.

That would be all the offense Andersen would need. The long-time adversary of the Flames from his time in Anaheim, improved his career mark to 6-0-1 against Calgary.

Andersen’s best stop came 6 minutes into the second with Calgary looking for the tying goal. Matthew Tkachuk was set up in front on a pretty threeway passing play with Backlund and Micheal Ferland, but Andersen thrust out his right pad to get a toe on the dangerous chance.

Two minutes into the third period, the Leafs surged in front 3-0 when the puck caromed off a skate to Kadri in the slot and he ripped a shot past Smith for his 12th goal of the season.

Stone’s slap shot inside the far post at 5:29 ruined Andersen’s shutout, but that’s as close as the Flames would get.

Toronto had a 30-20 edge in shots.

Andersen improved to 14-7-1 on the season while Smith fell to 11-8-1.