TORONTO – William Nylander scored his second goal of the night at 1:24 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in pre-season play Thursday.
After the Maple Leafs barely touched the puck early in the extra period, Nylander fired it past Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon to end overtime.
Auston Matthews, with a goal and an assist, and Tyler Bertuzzi also scored for Toronto. Mitch Marner added two assists. Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves.
Nate Danielson, Jonatan Berggren and Dominik Shine scored for Detroit. Shayne Gostisbehere chipped in two assists. Lyon stopped 34 shots.
The Maple Leafs dressed most of their NHL roster, while the Red Wings left many of their regulars at home for the penultimate exhibition contest.
Toronto gave Fraser Minten, 19, another look at centre as he aims to crack the roster. Selected with the 38th pick at the 2022 NHL draft, the six-foot-two, 192-pound Vancouver native entered with a goal and three assists in four pre-season games.
The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead when Nylander scored with the teams playing 4-on-4 in the first, but Danielson — the ninth overall selection at June’s draft — tipped home an equalizer as he continued to make his case to stick with Detroit.
The visitors then made it 2-1 six seconds into a power play when Berggren beat Samsonov.
Toronto got back even late in the first on a 5-on-3 man advantage when Matthews fired past Lyon.
The hosts went back in front midway through the second when Bertuzzi jumped on a turnover and snapped home his first with the Maple Leafs after signing in free agency.
The back-and-forth tilt swung back Detroit’s way late in the period when Samsonov gave the puck away behind his net, and Shine buried the equalizer into the empty cage to make it 3-3 through 40 minutes.
Samsonov, who had trouble holding onto his goalie stick all night, had to be sharp with under three minutes to go in regulation on a scramble in front to force OT.
Toronto opens the regular season Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena, while Detroit visits the New Jersey Devils next Thursday.
SHIFT RIGHT
Nylander, who started training camp at centre, moved back to the wing beside John Tavares with Minten in the middle on the Leafs’ third line.
HOLL PASS
Former Toronto defenceman Justin Holl played his first game at Scotiabank Arena since signing a three-year, US$10.2-million contract with Detroit in free agency.
JARNKROK DEBUTS, KLINGBERG SITS AGAIN
Maple Leafs forward Calle Jarnkrok played his first game of the exhibition schedule after recovering from a neck injury. Toronto defenceman John Klingberg missed another contests with an upper-body injury suffered Sept. 27 against the Buffalo Sabres.
UP NEXT
The Red Wings host the Maple Leafs in a Saturday rematch to conclude both teams’ pre-season schedules.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2023.
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