Maple Leafs score 3 straight in 2nd, surge past Stars

Joseph Woll made 36 saves for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 5-3 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

“He was standing on his head. He made a couple of huge saves there at the end,” Maple Leafs forward William Nylander said. “Just put the team on his back in these situations.”

Woll came up with a big game one day after the Maple Leafs announced that goalie Anthony Stolarz will have a procedure on his knee and be out 4-6 weeks.

“[Woll] was great tonight,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We needed him to be really good against a real good team at home. They’ve got a good home record, they’re hard to beat. We needed him to be good and he was. That gives our team confidence too, it plays a lot into it.”

Nylander scored twice, and Nicholas Robertson had a goal and an assist for Toronto (20-10-2), which has won two straight and four of five.

“I think we did a real good job capitalizing on our chances,” Woll said. “Especially in the third, I think we had some big blocks and shut it down for the most part. I think when you get up like that and you’re able to hold the lead and tighten it up defensively, it’s always nice.”

Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist for Dallas (19-12-0). Jake Oettinger made eight saves on 12 shots through two periods and Casey DeSmith made six saves in relief.

“We had some looks that we didn’t score on, and they had some that they did. Frustrating for sure. We played a lot better than the score showed,” Dallas forward Matt Duchene said. “I guess you’re going to have some of those in this league. We’ve won a couple of games like that, I don’t know if it was quite like that, but it happens.”

Sam Steel gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 5:14 in the first period when he drove down the ice and shot the puck high stick-side from the top of the crease.

“We played a pretty solid game. Just some pucks got through us. Their goalie played well to his credit,” Steel said. “We know there’s certain things when we are scoring that we’re doing, so we just have to get back to that. Once [scoring] does happen, you get a little pep in your step and get some confidence. So we’re going to stick with what we know works and we know we’ll have some success.”

Max Domi tied it 1-1 at 6:13 on a shot from the left face-off circle after forcing a turnover in the neutral zone.

Dadonov gave Dallas a 2-1 lead 22 seconds into the second period on a shot from the right face-off dot.

Nylander tied it 2-2 at 5:15 on a shot from the slot that beat Oettinger high glove-side off a feed from Auston Matthews on the rush.

“They’ve got some elite shooters over there, and they don’t need a lot of looks,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought we played a pretty good game. But if you give them a couple of free looks, which we did — early 2-on-1, a little miscommunication on the 2-on-2 there — if they get a look, there’s a good chance it’s going in. They have those types of shooters.”

Robertson gave Toronto a 3-2 lead at 5:31 on a shot from the high slot after capitalizing on a missed clearing attempt by Mason Marchment.

“It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but we stuck to our simplified game and buried a couple of goals,” Robertson said. “I just tried to get it on net, and I think I got a little lucky there. Just fortunate it went in.”

Bobby McMann made it 4-2 Toronto at 11:01 on a shot from the top of the right face-off circle.

Colin Blackwell cut the lead to 4-3 at 17:44 on a backdoor tap-in with DeSmith pulled for the extra attacker.

Nylander scored his second of the game, his 20th of the season, into an empty net at 18:17 for the 5-3 final.

“One of the hardest things in hockey is to have confidence and swagger when you’re not getting results, and we’ve got to find a way to find that right now,” Duchene said. “You’ve got to stay with it. You can’t get too frustrated, as hard as that is. We’ve got to find a way to score more than two for sure.”

Morning Skate

Game Highlights

Post-Game