Nylander scores in OT, Maple Leafs beat Wild 4-3 in Sweden
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William Nylander scored at 3:09 of overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs extended their winning streak to four with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday in the final game of the NHL’s Global Series in Sweden.
Nylander collected the puck, skated toward the net and fired a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury for his 12th goal of the season. He also extended his franchise-record season-opening point streak to 17 games.
“It’s pretty special to get the OT winner there,” Nylander said. “It was a great four points for us here.”
Nylander had five points (two goals, three assists) in Toronto’s two games in Stockholm.
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“He’s got such confidence and swagger here now that he is just feeling like he can turn a game at any point in time,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He stepped up in big moments and was a huge part of why we got four points here.”
Auston Matthews added a goal and an assist for Toronto. He tied Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets for the league lead with 14 goals.
Matthew Knies scored his fifth of the season, Morgan Rielly added a goal and two assists and Joseph Woll stopped 33 shots for Toronto, which was playing outside North America for the first time in its more than 100-year history.
Mitch Marner had two assists for the Maple Leafs to surpass 400 for his career.
Mats Zuccarello had a goal and an assist and defensemen Jon Merrill and Jake Middleton also scored for Minnesota, which lost its fifth straight (0-3-2). Fleury stopped 21 shots.
“I’m proud of the way the guys battled, to grind and tie the game and get the point,” Fleury said. Obviously, we want more, need more, but I think it is a step in the right direction.”
Trailing 3-1 in the third, the Wild tied it on goals by Middleton's and Zuccarello 2:32 apart to force overtime.
It was the final game of this series at Stockholm's Avicii Arena. The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings in overtime on Thursday, the Maple Leafs defeated the Red Wings on Friday and the Wild lost to the Senators in a shootout on Saturday in the first four-team event the league has held in one city outside of North America. The games are the first for the NHL in Sweden since the pandemic.
Merrill put the Wild 1-0 up at 2:37 of the first with a snap shot from the slot for his first of the season.
Toronto rebounded to take a 2-1 lead on Matthews' wrist shot on a power play at 12:43. And Marner found Knies with a cross-ice pass to one-time a slap shot from the right circle at 18:23.
Rielly stretched Toronto’s lead to 3-1 from the top of the left circle 4:22 into the third.
“It’s a fitting end to the week for sure, for us, for Willie, for the fans, for the city, the country, all that kind of stuff,” Keefe said. “I think it is a terrific close to the event; terrific how it works."
This was the 10th season the NHL has played in Europe with a total of 36 regular-season games on the continent (16 in Stockholm) to connect with hockey-mad fans in Scandinavia and elsewhere.
Up next
Maple Leafs: Visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
Wild: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.