<p>TORONTO — Mark Giordano broke a tie midway through the second period, Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves and the Calgary Flames beat the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 on Friday night.</p>
<p>Matthew Tkachuk, Derek Ryan and Christopher Tanev also scored, and Rasmus Andersson had two assists. The Flames improved to 15-13-3, winning for the fourth time in five games since Darryl Sutter returned as coach after Geoff Ward was fired.</p>
<p>Mitch Marner, Jason Spezza and Alexander Kerfoot scored for Toronto, and Frederik Andersen stopped 14 shots. The Maple Leafs, coming off a four-day break after dropping a pair last weekend, have lost six of seven to drop into a tie for the North Division lead with Edmonton. They had a nine-point division lead March 3.</p>
<p>The teams will complete the two-game set Saturday night.</p>
<p>Sporting their white and green St. Pats uniforms, the Maple Leafs tied it at 3 when Marner wristed his 12th past Markstrom at 3:48 of the second.</p>
<p>Toronto defenseman Justin Holl then rocked Johnny Gaudreau with an open-ice hit that drew Calgary’s attention, with Flames defenseman Juuso Valimaki going off for roughing. Holl would eventually drop the gloves with Tkachuk in a strange fight where the defenseman went to pick up his gloves after originally dropping them when challenged before both players eventually started swinging their fists.</p>
<p>Calgary then connected three seconds after Ilya Mikheyev went off for holding when Giordano blasted a one-timer past Andersen.</p>
<p>The Maple Leafs got a boost with the return of Wayne Simmonds to the lineup after the winger missed 18 games with a broken wrist. Alex Galchenyuk — the No. 3 overall pick in 2012 now with his seventh NHL organization since June 2018 — debuted for Toronto on a line with John Tavares and William Nylander.</p>
