Nylander lifts Leafs over Devils
Toronto downs New Jersey 1-0 in overtime
TORONTO — Keep taking your time with that upper-body injury, Auston Matthews.
Your Maple Leafs teammates are doing just fine without you in the win column.
Matthews has missed the past four games and the Leafs have won each, the latest victory coming in a 1-0 overtime triumph over the New Jersey Devils at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday night.
William Nylander scored in overtime and Frederik Andersen made 42 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Leafs won their fifth in a row overall, marking their first five-game winning streak since last Dec. 22-Jan. 1 and the second in the Mike Babcock era.
Before a crowd of 19,202, the Leafs, who had not played since beating the Boston Bruins last Saturday, improved to 13-7-0. The Devils dropped to 11-4-3.
The Leafs will gun for their sixth consecutive win when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. Toronto has not won six in a row since December 2014.
In overtime, the Leafs killed off an interference penalty to Jake Gardiner. Andersen made tough stops on Nico Hischier and Will Butcher during the New Jersey power play.
Nylander scored with 2.2 seconds left when his shot went off the post behind Devils goalie Cory Schneider and into the net.
The Devils outshot the Leafs 42-25.
The Leafs had chances in the third period. Both Tyler Bozak and Connor Brown were stopped in close by Schneider. And there was nothing to show for a power play with under eight minutes remaining when Blake Coleman was penalized for holding.
Matthews passed the eye test during the optional morning skate. He was one of seven Leafs on the ice and moved around as though he had not missed a shift, never mind the previous three games. Matthews, who had practised on Wednesday with his teammates for the first time since playing Nov. 6 against Vegas, was on the ice for 45 minutes.
As soon as Leafs coach Mike Babcock stepped to the podium during his morning news conference, the mystery regarding Matthews’ status was over.
“Auston is not available for tonight,” Babcock said, tersely.
Later, Babcock said: “(The Leafs’ medical staff ) just told me he was not available. Nothing bad happened.”
To say scoring chances were at a premium through the first 40 minutes would be a small understatement.
The Devils were outshooting the Leafs 20-16 heading into the first intermission, and though each club came close to scoring, neither had an abundance of opportunities.
Certainly, the game had a different feel than the Devils’ most recent visit, a 6-3 New Jersey victory on Oct. 11.
The Leafs knew they would have be much more diligent on the forecheck to prevent the quick Devils from breaking out, and for the most part they were effective in that area.
Late in the second, each member of the Leafs line of James van Riemsdyk, Bozak and Mitch Marner had a shot in quick sequence, with Bozak looking at an open net until a sprawling Adam Henrique thwarted his chance.
At the other end, Andersen made a fine stop on Hischier.
Nylander looked great on a shift in the first period, nearly scoring on a wraparound before missing the net by inches with a backhand.
Neither team scored on a power play in the opening 20 minutes, and the Devils were unable to have success in the second period when Brown shot the puck over the glass and was sent off for delay of game.
Andersen stopped Miles Wood on a partial breakaway in the first after Marner turned the puck over at the Devils blue line. Andersen also had to be sharp to stop Brian Boyle on the doorstep.
The game saw the season debut with the Leafs of winger Nikita Soshnikov, who was recalled on Tuesday. Soshnikov took the spot of Josh Leivo, who had played in the previous three games but failed to make much of an impact.
Soshnikov, playing in his first game with the Leafs since March 20, when he suffered a concussion against the Boston Bruins, skated on the fourth line with Matt Martin and centre Dominic Moore. Though Babcock wanted Soshnikov to be, in his words, “good, mean and fast,” Soshnikov was not a large influence.