Nylander scores but Maple Leafs, Hutchinson lose to Wild

TORONTO-- Zach Parise scored a tiebreaking goal 4:21 into the third period, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

Charlie Coyle knocked down Auston Matthews' clearing attempt and passed to Parise, who shot over
Michael Hutchinson
's glove for the 4-3 lead.
"It is encouraging; being down 2-0, if you give up that next one it can get out of hand in a hurry, but I just think the message for us was to not give up another one and we were going to get our looks and we just have to score on them," Parise said. "Today we were able to get four and Devan] Dubnyk played well. When we needed to get some big saves, he made them."
***[WATCH: [All Wild vs. Maple Leafs highlights]*
Dubnyk made 38 saves for the Wild (19-17-3), who are 2-5-1 in their past eight games and scored 10 goals in their prior seven.
"We weren't putting the puck in the net," Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu said. "I think we were still creating, so in some ways for sure it looks like you're struggling, but if you're doing the right things and creating and getting chances, sometimes you just have to stay with it."

William Nylander scored his first goal of the season, and Hutchinson made 30 saves for the Maple Leafs (26-12-2), who have lost two in a row.
"I didn't like our first period. I thought they were better than us," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought after that I liked our game a lot. It was a great game for our team; it's the kind of game, you've got to learn how to win all kinds of games, and they've got good face-off guys, they're a veteran team, they make it hard on you physically because they're physical on offense, they're near your net, they're making it hard for you to handle them."

Toronto took a 1-0 led seven seconds into the game when Mitchell Marner backhanded a shot over Dubnyk's glove. Marner then scored at 5:38 to make it 2-0 when he finished a give-and-go with John Tavares.
"It's a long game," Tavares said. "We gave ourselves a good lead and it was kind of back and forth from there. We just weren't able to get the next one. We had plenty of chances, plenty of bars tonight. Dubnyk made some good saves. We've just got to find a way to capitalize on those and it could be different."
Coyle got the Wild within 2-1 at 9:10 when he put in a rebound from a Jared Spurgeon shot. Koivu tied it 2-2 at 5:09 of the second period when he shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle with Hutchinson out of position.
Nylander scored at 8:16, ending an 11-game drought, to put the Maple Leafs ahead 3-2. Spurgeon scored 1:20 later to tie it 3-3.
"That's what we're used to with this team," Dubnyk said. "There was no [panic], we stuck to what we were doing, we kept pushing. Even when they got to 3-2, we didn't start thinking, 'Here we go again.' We just stuck with it and came back and won a game. That's what this group can do."

Minnesota was 4-for-4 killing penalties, including two in the third period after taking the lead.
"The big thing is we didn't get spread out," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "If you get spread out against that team, they've got five guys who can pass the puck and they're going to get it by you and get really good looks. We stayed inside the dots really well, blocked shots when we had to, and Dubnyk made great saves."

They said it

"It was a crazy start, afternoon game, long (pregame introduction), and then the puck drops and it's 1-0. It was just a weird start, but we tried to concentrate on the next shift, the next shot, try not to let it change what you're doing. It's impossible not obliviously, you start trying a little harder and squeezing a bit, but we found a way to settle in and to get one in the first to make it a one-goal game was good." -- Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk on recovering after allowing a goal seven seconds into the game
"Ideally what it's going to do is get him to compete harder, skate harder and take a load off him so he can get going. We need him to help our team and be a productive Leaf, we think he can be. It's just a matter of time." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on William Nylander scoring his first goal of the season

Need to know

Marner's goal seven seconds into the game matched a Maple Leafs record for the fastest goal from the start of a game. Charlie Conacher scored seven seconds into a 6-0 win against the Boston Bruins on Feb. 6, 1932. Marner's second goal made him the first Maple Leafs player with two goals in the opening 6:00 since Jan. 30, 2010, when Phil Kessel scored at 52 seconds and 3:49 in a 5-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. ... Hutchinson, acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers on Dec. 29, made his first start for the Maple Leafs with goalies Frederik Andersen (groin) and Garret Sparks (upper body) injured. ... Nylander did not play the first 28 games of the season; he signed a contract as a restricted free agent Dec. 1 and made his season debut Dec. 6. He had two assists in his first 11 games.

What's next

Wild: At the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; TVAS, TSN5, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SNO, SNW, SNP, NHL.TV)