The Maple Leafs finally scored on the power play on Sunday night.
As Toronto ended a back-to-back set, however, that rare goal with the man advantage represented all of their offence against the Minnesota Wild.
Matt Boldy scored at 2:14 of overtime at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., giving the Wild a 2-1 victory. The goal came on a breakaway and after the Leafs got caught up the ice.
Toronto clearly was tired after losing on Saturday in St. Louis against the Blues. It was outplayed in the third, but gladly will take the point.
When William Nylander one-timed Auston Matthews’ cross-ice feed past Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson with less than minute remaining in the first period, it marked just the Leafs’ fourth power-play goal of the season and first since Matthews scored one against Tampa Bay on Oct. 21.
Toronto was 0-for-18 in its previous six games and failed in its first power-play attempt on Sunday.
“It was a long time coming for us, a really good feeling,” Matthew Knies told Sportsnet’s Shawn McKenzie after the second period. Perhaps it was no coincidence that coach Craig Berube used five forwards on the unit, including Nylander, Matthews, Knies, John Tavares and Mitch Marner.
Before Sunday, the Leafs had fallen to 32nd overall with a power-play success rate of 7.9%.
Ryan Hartman put the Wild up 1-0 at 10:19 of the first period on a strange play. After Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz lost his stick, a recurring theme in the game, the Wild hit the post and the puck bounced off Hartman. It appeared that Hartman then kicked the puck into the net, but a league review showed that it went in off the stick of Tavares.
The Leafs now get a prolonged opportunity to get comfortable at home, with seven of their next eight games at Scotiabank Arena, including their next four against Atlantic Division rivals.
That starts on Tuesday when the Boston Bruins make their first of two visits to Toronto in 2024-25.
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