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Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander fans on a shot against Detroit Red Wings goaltender Thomas Greiss as Red Wings defenceman Filip Hronek keeps close in Toronto on Oct. 30.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Having picked the bones of bottom feeders to start the season, the Maple Leafs were confronted with a challenge at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning came to town. Surprisingly, Toronto roared back to win it 2-1 in overtime on a goal by William Nylander. It was the first game between the Atlantic Division foes since March 10, 2020. Two days after that, COVID-19 shut down hockey and all of the other major team sports.

“To start the way we did tonight and come back against a great team like Tampa is huge,” Nylander said.

Despite having won three games in a row going in, the Maple Leafs had not achieved all that much. Wins over the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and the moribund and injury-riddled Vegas Golden Knights do not a championship contender make.

In fact, Toronto’s five wins entering the night came against teams with a combined record of 15-30-5. That fired up fans and began to inflate expectations once again.

In Game No. 11 of 82 in the regular season, the Maple Leafs stole one. John Tavares scored with 42 seconds left to tie the game 1-1 and Nylander then scored near the end of a 4-on-3 power play. The victory improved Toronto’s record to 6-4-1, with a date at home on Saturday against the Boston Bruins, while Tampa Bay fell to 5-4-1.

“It was a good character builder,” Tavares, the Toronto captain, said. “We found a way to get it done when we didn’t have a lot going on. It feels pretty good.”

Sheldon Keefe, the Maple Leafs coach, worried about the Lightning’s ability to pounce on mistakes – and with good reason.

Almost as quickly as Martina Ortiz Luis blows a kiss after belting out O Canada, Tampa Bay was knocking at the door.

Twenty-five seconds after the opening puck drop, Travis Dermott turned the puck over to Anthony Cirelli and the Lightning centre missed an easy one from 18 feet in front of the net. Not long after that, Ondrej Palat got loose and clanked a shot off the post with the net wide open to him. Pierre-Édouard Bellemare similarly rung a shot off the goalpost a short time later.

All of this happened less than four minutes into the game and Toronto seemed to have luck on its side.

That all ended when Jake Muzzin fumbled a puck in front of the Lightning’s net, creating a 2 on 1 in the opposite direction. Corey Perry let loose with a long stretch pass that Patrick Maroon flicked past Jack Campbell for a 1-0 lead with 6:44 left in the first period. The rugged old-timers still have some life left in them.

Toronto then blew a chance to tie the game and go ahead in the last two minutes before the first intermission.

Mitch Marner drew two penalties on one play, breaking past defenceman Victor Hedman on a break-away and then getting hooked by him. As Marner neared the Tampa net, he took an elbow to the head for an illegal check penalty on Mikhail Sergechev.

After pushing and shoving along the boards, Tavares emerged with his helmet off and hair askew and the Maple Leafs had a 5 on 3 advantage with 2:12 remaining.

Toronto, which entered the night 5 for 28 on the power play, got off only one shot, a tip by Tavares, and stumbled around like actors in a slapstick comedy for much of it. They swung and missed as often as Chris Davis and Rob Deer.

“I didn’t like anything about our first period,” Keefe said. “It was as poor a period as we have played this season. We didn’t assert ourselves at all.”

The Maple Leafs were unable to solve Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy until the very end. The 2019 Vezina Trophy winner made numerous remarkable saves, including stopping Wayne Simmonds on a breakaway in the waning seconds of the second period. Simmonds tried to slip a backhand past him to no avail.

Vasilevskiy entered the evening 5-2-1 with a .915 save percentage and had wins in three straight starts. There is a reason why he has been a Vezina finalist in four successive years. He finished with 32 saves.

Campbell played well coming off a 26-save shutout against Vegas on Tuesday. He was credited with 24 saves and kept the margin to 1-0 in the third with a series of tough saves. One of the best was an acrobatic stop on Brayden Point on a break-away, with a follow-up by Matthieu Joseph. Campbell is 11-1-1 in his past 13 starts at Scotiabank Arena.

“It was a hard-fought game by both teams,” Campbell said. “Vasilevskiy was great. When you play against him, it’s fun. He sets the bar high.”

Nylander leads the team with nine points and five goals.

Marner played down the hit he took from Sergachev that riled up his teammates.

“He came across a little bit high but he apologized a little later,” Marner said. Both he and Auston Matthews had two assists each. “It’s a fast-paced game and stuff happens quickly.”

Asked if he believes Sergachev’s play is worthy of a suspension, Marner deferred.

“I will leave it to the league and see what they do,” he said.

Tavares was still steamed about the hit several hours afterward.

“I didn’t like it at all,” he said. “We want that stuff out of our game.”

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