Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen makes a save on New Jersey Devils centre Adam Henrique as Maple Leafs centre Patrick Marleau defends on Nov. 16, 2017.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
It took some time on the tightrope, but the Toronto Maple Leafs gained their revenge on the New Jersey Devils.
The Leafs survived a penalty in overtime and a heart-stopping final minute when both teams traded chances. Then William Nylander, who had not scored in 11 games, connected with 2.2 seconds left to give them a 1-0 win Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre.
It was a spectacular finish and raised the Leafs' winning streak to five games, the last four without Auston Matthews. He managed to practice with the Leafs on Wednesday but was held out of the Devils game with what is suspected to be a back injury.
The main reason the Leafs were much better this time against the Devils is that one Leaf in particular was far better. Goaltender Frederik Andersen took the win and his second shutout of the season by stopping 42 shots in a duel with Devils counterpart Cory Schneider, who faced 25 shots.
Andersen's finest moment came just before the game ended as he made several big saves in succession capped by one chance that was the result of a giveaway by Nylander. Seconds later, Nylander became the hero.
"I told [Nylander] to go thank Freddie," Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. "[Nylander] needed to score a goal, right? He hasn't scored in a while. He missed his guy and his guy was in home free. Those things happen, that's why you pay the goalie and it was a big save."
While the tight-checking game was boring in some stretches and tense in others, especially during overtime when Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner was called for interference 42 seconds in, Andersen claimed it was one fun evening. That drew a few incredulous glances.
"No, it's fun," Andersen said. "Obviously you enjoy a good goalie battle, especially when you come out on top."
While the Maple Leafs did play better Thursday night than they did in their previous meeting with the Devils, a 6-3 home loss on Oct. 11, it was in a relative sense. The Leafs fore-checked and skated hard in the first period only to be muzzled in the second and held to four shots and likewise in the third when they were outshot 14-7.
However, since the score remained 0-0 for three periods, it was a step up for the Leafs albeit not a step up from their recent play, which saw them take a four-game winning streak into the game. Then again, these are not last season's 30th-place Devils but a rebuilding quick young team backed by a top-flight veteran goaltender that brought an 11-4-2 record to the game, good enough for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Both Andersen and Schneider were the story as evidenced by the score. Schneider pulled three pucks away from the goal line in the first period, when he faced 12 shots, while Andersen was especially sharp in the second, third and overtime.
"I thought Freddy [Andersen] was really good, especially in overtime," Babcock said. "It was an intense checking game. There wasn't a lot of room for anybody. It was probably boring for the fans. It was what I expected."
Nylander's first goal since Oct. 21 came as the fans were hollering "Shoot!" as the final seconds ticked off the clock. He was at the end of a long shift and it was clear he was almost out of gas but after circling the net his wrist shot found a corner of the net.
Nylander, too, said it was all fun, especially the three-on-three overtime. Up to a point, at least. "Oh yeah, it's lots of fun. There's more ice to skate on. You'd rather have it over before three-on-three but it's fun," he said.
Nylander said he didn't hear the fans shouting and "I didn't know how much time was left." He also said he had just "a little energy left."
It was just the fourth goal of the season for Nylander, although he said he was looking at things "positively, looking at the fact you're creating chances and having chances." Babcock wasn't so sure about that.
"When you haven't scored in a while as a young guy, you get thinking too much instead of just playing and working," the coach said. "We've got to get our guys convinced of that. If you just work everything works out fine."
A few hours before the game, Andersen said his recent improvement was spurred by an up-tick in his confidence, which came from knowing Babcock was not about to give him the hook when he was struggling.
"I think just being out there, being able to compete every night has allowed me to get a good feeling and kind of shake it off, the start [to the season]," said Andersen, who went into the game with more than 960 minutes played, the most among NHL goaltenders. "The more you're out there, the better you end up feeling.
"I think the confidence, the belief of the coaching staff and the organization has been good for me."
There was one change in the Devils' lineup from the last game. Former Leaf centre Brian Boyle made his first visit to Toronto since signing with the Devils last summer. Boyle missed the October game because he was dealing with chronic myeloid leukemia, a form of bone-marrow cancer.
Boyle, 32, was diagnosed with the disease in late September during training camp and missed the Devils' first 10 games of the season while he underwent treatment. It is the same form of cancer that struck Jason Blake in 2007 when he was in training camp with the Maple Leafs. However, the cancer is treatable with medication and Blake went on to play four more seasons in the NHL after his diagnosis.