Nylander OT goal lifts Maple Leafs past Devils

TORONTO — William Nylander scored his second goal of the game 1:10 into overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to defeat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

Nylander, who also had an assist, had just come off the bench and took a stretch pass from Mitch Marner at the offensive blueline, shooting past Jacob Markstrom's glove on a breakaway.

“I think we gained our momentum,” Nylander said. “We had a lot of hard work and that started paying off, started getting more high-quality scoring chances so just try to build off that. I just saw an opening and he just put it right there and I was able to walk in.”

Auston Matthews scored twice, and Joseph Woll made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs (28-16-2), who had lost three in a row in regulation. Marner and Jake McCabe, who returned after missing the past four games with an upper-body injury, each had two assists.

“Battling,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I thought we battled hard all game, that was the biggest thing for me. Our battle, our second and third effort in all zones.”

Jack Hughes scored and had two assists, Nico Hischier scored twice and Markstrom made 37 saves for the Devils (26-15-6), who are 2-4-3 in their past nine.

“The way we managed the overtime, that was against everything that we’ve talked about in terms of managing,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “One hits the post and could go in and changes everything but we had the puck again and just how we managed that was just unacceptable.”

After controlling the puck for most of the first minute, the Devils took a low percentage shot, turning over possession, and were in the midst of a change when Nylander snuck behind the defense to take the pass that led to the breakaway.

The Maple Leafs were without forward John Tavares, who is week to week with a lower body injury sustained in practice on Wednesday.

Matthews tied it 3-3 at 15:47 of the third period when he shot over Markstrom's right shoulder from below the left face-off dot.

“I think it was just one shift at a time, not losing our composure, staying focused and being really competitive all over the ice,” Matthews said. “I thought the second and third periods were really good periods by our group and even when we tied the game and gave up the lead again, I thought we just stayed with it, rolled it shift after shift and were able to tie it up and finish the job in overtime.”

Hughes put the Devils up 1-0 at 2:21 of the first period. Johnathan Kovacevic kept the puck in at the blueline and found Hughes, who had fallen earlier in the play, alone in front of the net. He deked to the backhand to beat Woll glove side.

The Maple Leafs tied it 1-1 at 6:14 of the second period when Nylander took a pass from Max Domi and shot high to the blocker side from the left face-off dot.

“It’s nice,” Nylander said. “It’s nice when you find the back of the net that’s for sure.”

Nylander leads the Maple Leafs with 26 goals, though he had scored only once in his past 11 games.

“He reads the game very well,” Berube said. “He’s got a real high hockey IQ with reading where he can get open and take advantage of people. That’s a great play by Mitch too (on the overtime goal) to read the change and get it up to Willy. Willy had a heck of a game. He had second and third effort on pucks. He was working tonight as everybody was.”

Keefe said breakdowns cost the Devils at times but was otherwise satisfied with the effort he saw.

“There was a mistake on the Nylander goal, the first one and a mistake on the Matthews goal to tie the game, those are things where you can’t make those mistakes against this team but there’s a ton of positives here today,” Keefe said. “It’s another good hard road game for our guys against a good team.”

The Devils took a 2-1 lead at 8:14 of the second period on the power play when Hischier picked up the puck along the side boards, skated to the left face-off dot and shot low glove, using defenseman Conor Timmins as a screen.

Matthews tied it 2-2 at 7:43 of the third period when he jammed in a rebound on the power play from Marner’s point shot.

Hischier scored his second of the game at 9:44 of the third period to put the Devils up 3-2 when he took a spinning pass from Timo Meier and shot from the top of the goal crease on the power play.

“Disappointing I think,” Hischier said. “We addressed some things in the overtime, mistakes that should not happen again. That’s why it’s frustrating.”

NOTES: Domi’s assist on Nylander’s first goal was his 300th in the NHL… Marner’s assist on Matthews’ second goal was his 700th NHL point. He is the sixth skater in franchise history to reach 700 points as a Maple Leaf and the fastest to reach the milestone (622 games) passing Darryl Sittler, who reached 700 in 666 games… Keefe coached his first game in Toronto since being fired by the Maple Leafs on May 9. He was hired by the Devils two weeks later on May 23. During five seasons with the Maple Leafs, Keefe was 212-97-40.