Nylander scores in OT, Maple Leafs defeat Penguins for 5th straight victory

William Nylander scored 1:00 into overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied twice to extend their winning streak to five games with a 6-5 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.

Nylander won it with his team-leading 35th goal this season, drifting to the high slot for a wrist shot. He also had an assist.

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist to reach 700 NHL points, Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist and Joseph Woll made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs (38-20-2), who have won eight of nine.

“It’s good to win those games,” Nylander said. “It’s the positive thing that you can take away from it. Even though we’re not playing great, we’re still able to win the game.”

Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Rickard Rakell scored twice and Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist for the Penguins (24-29-10), who have lost six of seven (1-5-1), including 3-2 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Joel Blomqvist made 27 saves.

“We’re trying to win games,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We have two goaltenders that we believe in (Blomqvist, Alex Nedeljkovic). Obviously, Joel’s a young kid (23). He’s trying to find his way and establish himself in this league. It’s a hard league, so we recognize that we’re going to go through some ups and downs.”

Max Domi, on his 30th birthday, gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 2:15 of the first period with a wrist shot near the right post after the puck slipped off the stick of Bobby McMann.

Conor Timmins made it 2-0 at 4:39, taking a pass from Pontus Holmberg in the left face-off circle for a wrist shot into the corner of the net.

Pittsburgh then scored three times in 3:24.

Cody Glass cut it to 2-1 at 10:27, deflecting a one-timer from Ryan Shea.

Rakell tied it 2-2 at 11:29 on his 500th NHL point, a wrist shot past an outstretched Woll.

Crosby gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead on a power play at 13:51 with a wrist shot from the left circle for his 611th NHL goal, passing Bobby Hull (610) for 18th all-time.

Matthews tied it 3-3 at 4:08 of the second period with a sharp wrist shot from the right circle.

It was Matthews’ 390th NHL goal, ahead of Darryl Sittler (389) for second in Maple Leafs history behind Mats Sundin (420). He also extended his point streak to nine games (13 points; two goals, 11 assists).

“It’s nice. It’s nice to be in the same sentence as a guy like Darryl Sittler,” Matthews said. “Obviously, a great Leaf. [He] paved the way for some of us out here today. So, it’s a big honor to be in the same sentence.”

Rust put Pittsburgh back in front 4-3 at 15:38, taking a pass from Crosby to the net before scoring on a backhand.

Crosby reached 1,050 assists, passing Gordie Howe (1,049) for 10th in NHL history.

“I thought for a lot of the night we were pretty good,” Rust said. “When we did make mistakes, they were fairly big mistakes. And they’ve got some guys who can score some goals over there.”

John Tavares tied it 4-4 with a wrist shot on a breakaway at 19:04.

Knies then gave Toronto a 5-4 lead on another breakaway, scoring from the high slot with 0.1 seconds remaining. It was the fifth time this season a player scored on a goalie in the final second of a period.

“We know that they’re a good team,” Rakell said. “They have a lot of great players, and we were right there with them tonight. Got to find a way to get better.”

Rakell drove to the net for a backhand to tie it 5-5 just 10 seconds into the third period.

“It’s not how we wanted to draw it up,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We made a couple of mistakes and put ourselves in a little bit of a hole. But guys stayed with it, climbed out of it, found a way to get the win.”

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