William Nylander scores the game-winning goal against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
William Nylander scored the overtime winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night.
The goal, with 53.9 seconds remaining in the extra period, was Nylander’s ninth of the season, and his team-leading 27th point. The Swede took a pass from Morgan Rielly, and danced around both Blues defenceman William Holloway and goaltender Jordan Binnington before depositing the puck in the net.
The win gave head coach Craig Berube his first win over his former team after going 0-2 last season. Berube led the Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup.
The Maple Leafs’ recent procession to the infirmary showed little sign of abating Tuesday. Already without three of its top-four centres – captain Auston Matthews, Nicolas Roy and Scott Laughton – the team is also missing top-tier defencemen Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo, and No. 1 goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
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Although general manager Brad Treliving said the team would not use the injuries as an excuse for the team’s poor start to the season – terming such talk part of a “losing mentality” during an availability – that was before first-line left winger Matthew Knies begged out of Tuesday’s game following the morning skate. He’s now day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
So with a patchwork lineup – centre Jacob Quillan was called up from the American Hockey League Marlies Monday to play his second career NHL game – and waiver pickup Troy Stecher making his Leafs debut – his seventh different NHL team – Toronto took to the ice Tuesday night.
Across the centre line was another desperate hockey club: the St. Louis Blues. Two points back of the Maple Leafs at puck drop, the game was a basement battle between two of the bottom-five teams in the NHL.
Less than two minutes in, Toronto’s leading scorer, William Nylander, struck first. Unfortunately for those in blue, it was into his own net, with Blues winger Nathan Walker taking the credit for a puck that the Swede inadvertently backhanded out of the air and past Joseph Woll.
With the home team outshooting the Blues 10-4 in the first period, the crowd wouldn’t have to wait long for the Leafs’ reply. It came from a somewhat unexpected source, as Jake McCabe floated a wrist shot towards goal, and it found its way over Jordan Binnington and under the crossbar for his third of the year to tie things up.
Berube’s team continued to pile on to his former club after the first intermission, and finally took the lead with its 17th shot of the game. Former St. Louis winger Sammy Blais – who won the Stanley Cup with Berube’s Blues in 2019 – found his way into the lineup with the injury to Knies. He made it count just before the halfway point of the second period, centring a pass to Steven Lorentz, who had time to pick his spot to register his second of the season.
Joseph Woll makes a save as St. Louis Blues’ Dylan Holloway looks on during third period action on Tuesday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
But leads in Tuesday’s game were of the precarious variety. With McCabe in the penalty box for tripping – the first of two straight misconducts he earned for the transgression in the second period – Blues stalwarts Cam Fowler and Robert Thomas worked the puck down the left side before threading a cross-ice pass to Dalibor Dvorsky, who one-timed a shot past a flat-footed Woll.
Woll ultimately finished with 27 saves on 29 shots in just his second start since returning to the Leafs from his personal leave of absence earlier in the season.
The Maple Leafs next play host to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, before heading out on a six-game road trip.