Nylander, Andersen come up big to lead Leafs past Devils for fifth straight win
William Nylander scored with 2.2 seconds to play in overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs blanked the New Jersey Devils 1-0 on Thursday for their fifth straight win.
Frederik Andersen made 42 saves for the Maple Leafs (137-0), including three huge ones in the extra period to give his team a chance to win it.
Corey Schneider stopped 24 shots for the Devils (11-4-3).
Leafs centre Auston Matthews was on the ice for optional morning skate but sat out his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury.
Thursday’s meeting looked like two different teams compared to when these two clubs met in October, a 6-3 New Jersey win that included a 47-save performance from Schneider.
Miles Wood had the game’s first scoring chance as he got in alone on Andersen 6:37 into the opening period, only to be turned away by the Danish goaltender.
The Leafs, with the seventhbest power play in the league, nearly made it 1-0 midway through the first on the man advantage, but Schneider came up big twice.
First he stretched out to rob James van Riemsdyk with his right arm along the ice on the goal-line with the net wide open, then he came across the
crease to stop Patrick Marleau on a one-timer set up by Nylander.
A couple big stops from Andersen and a few missed nets by the Devils on a power play saved Connor Brown from the doghouse after he flipped the puck over the glass trying to clear his zone midway through the second period.
New Jersey’s third-ranked
power play kept Toronto hemmed in its own zone for well over a minute but couldn’t take the lead.
Toronto’s offence was absent for 16-plus minutes in the second until van Riemsdyk was turned away on its best scoring chance of the period, choosing to keep the puck and shoot on a 2-on-1 with Mitch Marner.
Shots were 34-23 New Jersey after 60 minutes of scoreless hockey.
Notes: Forward Nikita Soshnikov made his season debut for Toronto after being recalled from AHL Marlies... Devils centre Travis Zajac made his season debut after missing the first 17 games recovering from surgery to repair a torn left pectoral muscle.