Nylander lifts Maple Leafs past Wild in OT

TORONTO -- William Nylander scored 1:05 into overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 2-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.

Nylander stole the puck from Frederick Gaudreau near the boards, cut around Matt Boldy in the left face-off circle and shot from the top of the goal crease.
"I put it under the glove," Nylander said. "I was trying to go high, but it went under, so I'll take it.
"I knew there was a forward there (Boldy), so I just tried to take it to the net and I saw he was kind of flat-footed there, so it was going to be hard if I came in with some speed."
Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano was impressed with Nylander's effort to steal the puck and quickly get to the net for the winning goal.
"A lot of our forwards have that quality where they can strip guys of pucks, and I think 'Willie' is one of the best in the League at it," Giordano said. "You're never safe around him when he's behind you like that, and the move to the net was pretty incredible."

David Kampf scored, Nylander had an assist, and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves for the Maple Leafs (36-15-8), who have won four of their past five games.
"I liked how we played just as disciplined a game," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "That's an elite defensive team. They play really hard, really adhere to their structure and tonight they were really dialed in in that area."
Brandon Duhaime scored, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves for the Wild (32-21-6), who had won four straight, including a 2-0 victory at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
"We liked every part of our game here tonight except missing one point," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "That was a fantastic individual play (by Nylander). Gaudreau makes a great play himself getting stick on puck, but they do that a lot, they do a lot of stripping from behind. Their sticks are real good. Two inches up and it's a hook, but it wasn't, it was not on his hand, it was just on his stick. A very skilled play by a skilled player, and then a good play to beat a forward playing defense and then he makes a great move as well."

Duhaime made it 1-0 at 12:10 of the first period from below the goal line when he banked a shot off the skate off Maple Leafs forward Calle Jarnkrok at the left post.
"I think just we played as a team, we played hard," Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski said. "I thought we had a great effort tonight. We very easily could have won that game. If we have efforts like that the rest of the way, we're going to be just fine."
Kampf tied it 1-1 at 16:07 when he one-timed a pass at the side of the crease from Nylander, who was behind the net.
With Minnesota on the power play late in the third period, Samsonov made a glove save on a snap shot by Kirill Kaprizov in the slot with 2:16 left to keep the score tied.
"There's key moments in the game, the penalty kill late," Giordano said. "But I thought we were pretty structured and didn't give up much ourselves."

Nylander said it was important for the Maple Leafs to show they could win a game against a team that did not give up much offensively.
"It was a good game," Nylander said. "These are the kind of games that are going to be coming down the line here, so we've got to win these kind of games. It's more like playoff hockey, so it was good for us.
"Patience is huge. We're 1-1 through 60 minutes, so you don't want to worry and try to force plays to make it 2-1. We'll grind them out."
NOTES: Giordano had three blocked shots to tie Kris Russell for the most in NHL history (2,044). ... Nylander became the fourth player in Maple Leafs history to score at least three overtime goals in a season (Ken Doraty, 3, 1933-34; Mats Sundin, 4, 1999-2000; John Tavares, 3, 2019-20). With 33 goals in 59 games, Nylander is one shy of his NHL career high in goals, set last season in 81 games. … Duhaime set an NHL career high with his seventh goal in his 36th game. He scored six in 80 games last season.