Nylander, Maple Leafs rally past Panthers for OT win

TORONTO --William Nylander scored at 1:53 of overtime after tying the game in the third period to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 5-4 win against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Nylander skated around Carter Verhaeghe in the left face-off circle before cutting across the crease and tucking the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky's outstretched left pad and the post.
"I had some speed and felt like I could take it wide. I was able to get it to the back post and sneak it by him," Nylander said.

Mitchell Marner had two assists to extend his home point streak to 19 games for the Maple Leafs (27-11-7), who had lost two straight.
Matt Murray allowed four goals on eight shots before being pulled for the first time this season. Ilya Samsonov made 11 saves in relief.
"I thought Samsonov did an unbelievable job coming in cold like that, made a ton of huge saves for us," Murray said. "Auston (Matthews) got a huge goal for us at the end of the second there. Willy had a huge night for us to pull out the two points. Unbelievable job by everybody.
"I just have to be better. That's the bottom line. If I come up with a couple of those, obviously it's a much different game."

Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, and Bobrovsky made 32 saves for the Panthers (21-20-5), who were coming off a 4-1 win at the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
"We're working our butts off now," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "You may not be able to see it because there was a little fatigue there towards the end of the game, we didn't have that push or sharpness, but they're working hard enough to win games. When you do that, your goalie starts making more saves, everybody starts feeling better. Tough loss tonight."
Nylander tied it though 4-4 at 5:59 of the third. Marner's initial shot was saved by Bobrovsky, but the rebound deflected in off Nylander's head as he was crashing the net.
The goal came after Nylander missed the net on a penalty shot 34 seconds into the period.
"I haven't been shooting the puck lately, so it was nice to get that one in off the head and then kind of felt better," Nylander said.
"I didn't really see anything, I was just in front of the net. Mitch put it to the net, and I guess it just hit my head, so I'll take it."

Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 1:54 first period, shooting glove side from the right circle after the Maple Leafs turned the puck over along the boards.
Dryden Hunt tied it 1-1 at 2:38 when Morgan Rielly's backdoor pass deflected in off his skate.
Anton Lundell put the Panthers back in front 2-1 at 12:34 with a short-handed goal. He shot into an open net after Murray stopped Barkov on a breakaway.
Alex Kerfoot tied it 2-2 at 15:10 after kicking a rebound to his backhand on a power play, but Josh Mahura responded for Florida to make it 3-2 at 18:04 with a slap shot from the top of the left circle.

Barkov then pushed it to 4-2 at 1:41 of the second period when he shot over Murray's right shoulder from the top of the right circle on a power play.
Murray was pulled following the goal.
"That's a big time shot by Barkov, but for me, I'm more pulling the goaltender for our team," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Just needed to change something. You can't give up four goals on eight shots no matter how you shake it out, but that was really it. You look at the actual goals, I didn't think any of the goals were too egregious or weak. There was some traffic involved inside each of those goals, but clearly we needed to change something."
Matthews cut it to 4-3 at 19:57 of the second, scoring a power-play goal after receiving a pass from Nylander from below the goal line.
Marner, who had the secondary assist on the play, has 28 points (seven goals, 21 assists) during his home point streak, which passed Darryl Sittler (1977-78) for the longest in Maple Leafs history.
"You guys (media) are the ones who keep telling me this stuff, but it's cool," Marner said. "I'm trying to win hockey games, so I'm not trying to focus on too many self records or anything like that. I'm just trying to win games."

Florida, which ranks 21st in the NHL on the penalty kill, allowed two power-play goals on seven opportunities.
"We battled as hard as we could," Barkov said. "We spent a lot of time in our zone on the penalty kills, and they're going to get their shots and momentum. It's hard to spend so much time there. … We got to the overtime and it could have gone either way, but they played with the puck the whole overtime, so they got their chance."
NOTES: Maple Leafs forward John Tavares had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (five goals, six assists). ... Barkov has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak. … Nylander ended a six-game goal drought. … Hunt has scored three goals this season, one each with Toronto, the Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers.