Nylander extends point streak to 14, Maple Leafs defeat Flames in shootout

William Nylander scored twice and had an assist, extending his season-opening point streak to 14 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 5-4 shootout win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.

Nylander has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in the streak.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory; he’s one of the best players in the world right now,” Maple Leafs forward Max Domi said. “Every time he touches the puck something dangerous is happening. I think everyone can see that. You look at some of the defensive plays he made though tonight, it speaks volumes to what he’s doing out there. He’s leading by example for sure and all the boys are following suit, so it’s great to have him going at such a high pace and we’re going to keep going and keep building, and our group is going to keep following behind him.”

Calle Jarnkrok scored to extend his point streak to five games, and Joseph Woll made 24 saves for Maple Leafs (7-5-2), who were 1-3-2 in their previous six. Mitchell Marner and Domi scored in the shootout, when Woll stopped four of five shots.

“A lot of good signs for us tonight,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “Stuff we talked about over the last 24 hours. We know we need to continue to defend better and keep the puck out of our net. When we have leads, especially three-goal leads, maintaining those and staying controlled, but it’s inevitable goals are going to go in, mistakes will happen and it’s just how we respond to those, and I liked our response throughout the game. They crawled their way [back], and we just continued to push forward.”

Dan Vladar made 32 saves for the Flames (4-7-2), who had won two in a row and trailed 4-1 early in the second period. Yegor Sharangovich scored in the shootout.

“That resiliency. I mean, that’s always good to see,” Calgary forward Nazem Kadri said. “Character, effort, that’s always a positive especially if there’s a takeaway from today’s game, just being able to secure a point and get out of here with at least one or two points.”

Jarnkrok gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead at 8:18 of the first period when he took a pass from Domi and backhanded a shot in the slot.

Nylander pushed the lead to 3-1 with a short-handed goal at 1:06 of the second. He stole the puck from Noah Hanifin at the red line, skated into the zone on a 2-on-1 with Noah Gregor and shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

“When you look at the first three goals, they were gifts that we gave them and then we took on some water for sure in the third period,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “The half-full part is that we battled back, we were down 4-1 and we found a way to get a point.”

Woll kept it a two-goal game by stopping Martin Pospisil on a breakaway at 2:51.

Tavares made it 4-1 at 4:45 when he one-timed a no-look backhand pass in the slot from Nylander, who was behind the net.

“I told him it was an unbelievable feed,” Tavares said. “Just great instincts and using his body to protect the puck and making the play all in kind of one sequence there, one motion. He put it in a great spot for me and gave me ample time to pick my spot.”

The Flames cut it to 4-2 at 5:33 when Nikita Zadorov shot high glove from the top of the left circle.

A.J. Greer made it 4-3 at 12:22 when he deflected MacKenzie Weegar’s point shot in the slot.

Pospisil tied it 4-4 at 3:22 of the third period when he jammed a loose puck between Woll’s pads.

“I liked that we didn’t get rattled,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We didn’t give the game away. After they made it 4-4 might have been the best we played all game. Third period was our best period, so sometimes things don’t go your way, but again here tonight, just a good game. A lot of good things for us.”

Nylander put Toronto up 1-0 on the power play at 3:01 of the first period after he stole the puck from Sharangovich just inside the blue line and deked to his forehand at the top of the goal crease.

Connor Zary tied it 1-1 at 7:02 when he got to his own rebound and put it high glove from the bottom of the right circle.