TORONTO — William Nylander lost the puck before quickly stealing it back.
Then his eyes lit up.
Wild forward Matt Boldy was the only skater standing in the way of a game-clinching moment in Friday’s extra period.
The Maple Leafs winger didn’t miss.
Nylander stripped Frederick Gaudreau before dangling around Boldy and outwaiting Filip Gustavsson on a jaw-dropping individual effort at 1:05 of overtime as Toronto defeated Minnesota 2-1.
“I knew there was a forward there,” Nylander said after bagging his 33rd goal of the season. “Just tried to take it to the net. I saw that he was kind of flat-footed.
“It was gonna be hard if I came with some speed.”
Impossible, it turns out, on a night with little action at either end until the decisive sequence.
“Our forwards have that quality — they can strip guys of pucks,” Leafs defenceman Mark Giordano said of Nylander’s thievery. “Willie’s one of the best in the league at it. You’re never safe around him when he’s behind you like that. Then the play, the move to the net, was pretty incredible.
“Nice one to see from the bench.”
David Kampf had the other goal for Toronto (36-15-8), which got 24 saves from Ilya Samsonov. Nylander added an assist to cement his second consecutive 70-point campaign.
“No surprise for me right now,” Samosonov said of his talented teammate’s numbers. “He scores all the time … I’m so happy (to) play with these guys.”
The Leafs improved to 6-8 in OT in 2022-23 after starting an ugly 1-6. That forced head coach Sheldon Keefe to tweak his approach in 3-on-3 by putting a defensive forward out to take the initial faceoff.
Toronto lost Friday’s draw against Minnesota, but got the puck back and was able to change against some tired legs on the other side.
Nylander jumped into the action and did the rest.
“Overtime was an issue for us,” Keefe said. “We changed our strategy a little bit in terms of how we started, how we deploy the guys. The luck has gone our way a little bit in terms of getting us more time with the puck.
“It’s given more opportunities for players like Will to make plays like that.”
Brandon Duhaime replied for Minnesota (32-21-6). Gustavsson made 22 stops as the Wild saw their four-game winning streak snapped after beating Columbus 2-0 on Thursday.
“Absolutely everything,” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said when asked what he liked about his team’s performance against a rested, high-powered roster. “We liked everything about our game tonight — except missing one point.”
The Leafs, who are set to head out on a five-game road trip that includes their annual swing through Western Canada, won’t play again at Scotiabank Arena until March 11.
“We’re going to be in a lot of those games down the stretch and in the playoffs,” Giordano said of Friday’s razor-thin margin. “You gotta take what’s there and not force it, not get frustrated.”
The third organization involved in last week’s three-team trade that saw the Leafs acquire forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from St. Louis, the Wild opened the scoring in the first period on a strange sequence that saw Duhaime’s centring pass go off Toronto’s Calle Jarnkrok and sneak by Samsonov for his seventh.
The Leafs responded before the period was out when Kampf scored his sixth from in tight off a Nylander setup.
Playing their first game against an opponent in a post-season spot at the start of play since Feb. 1 against Boston, the Leafs got a power play in the second, but were unable to find a way past Gustavsson, whose only other appearance against Toronto came in May 2021 in a 4-3 overtime victory when he was with Ottawa.
The Leafs’ fifth-ranked man advantage got another opportunity with under eight minutes left in the third, but the Minnesota goaltender was equal to a Nylander one-timer.
The Wild went to their first power play with less than four minutes remaining in regulation only to have Samsonov and Toronto’s penalty killers hold firm to force OT.
“Patience is huge,” said Nylander, whose three OT goals this season are tied for the league lead. “We’re 1-1 through 60 minutes. We don’t want to worry and try to force plays.
“We’ll grind them out.”
And then on nights like Friday, win it on a breathtaking moment late.
BLOCK PARTY
Giordano entered play three blocked shots short of Kris Russell’s NHL record of 2,044.
The 39-year-old was credited with three through 40 minutes against the Wild, but will have to wait a little longer to set the new mark in a category the NHL only started tracking consistently in 2005-06.
“Something I’ve done all my career,” Giordano said of putting his body on the line. “I play a lot of penalty kill, so you’re gonna be in those positions.”
COOKIE MONSTER
Acciari shared the story this week about how he got the “Cookie” nickname from Florida teammate Keith Yandle.
“There were no cookies at pre-game meal,” said the Johnston, R.I., product. “I didn’t throw a fit, but was a little upset.
“Keith helped me get that in the pre-game meals.”
So what’s the cookie situation in Toronto?
“Very good,” Acciari said with a smile. “Very happy with them.”
UP NEXT
Leafs: Visit Seattle on Sunday.
Wild: Host Columbus on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2023.
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
