In Toronto, the visiting Edmonton Oilers let s 3-1 lead in the middle frame escape then as the Maple Leafs picked up two in the third period to force extra time.
In the extra session, Auston Matthews scored to give the Leafs a 4-3 win.
“Definitely wasn’t how we drew it up in overtime, but it was a fortunate bounce and we’ll take that any day of the week,” Matthews said. “Just resiliency, though, we just stuck with it. The second period, we definitely didn’t play our best hockey, but the third period, we clawed our way back and got a couple huge plays from John [Tavares], William [Nylander] and Alex [Galchenyuk].”
Jack Campbell made 17 saves to get the win.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, I just didn’t have it tonight, and I think that’s what a really great team does is pick guys up,” Campbell said “They picked me up tonight and just led the way. I’m really proud of the boys. Just the whole game though, I didn’t like my game one bit. We won the hockey game, so it makes it a little bit easier.”
Pierre Engvall put the Leafs up 1-0 in the second period before the Oilers scored three straight.
“We liked a lot about what we did in two of three periods, but two out of three isn’t enough against a team like this,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “So we don’t like [that] we gave them a point but obviously love how we fought our way back and got the win for Jack.”
Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl and Tyson Barrie scored for Edmonton in the second period outburst.
John Tavares and William Nylander got the Leafs even in the third period.
“Nice to get one obviously, it’s a big part of my game and this year it hasn’t seemed to be as consistent as I’d like,” Tavares said.
Mike Smith made 27 saves in the loss.
“Our energy was all right, but our execution was poor,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “We battled the puck in the first period, and when you turn the puck over so much, you end up chasing it. The second period was a little better, but in the third period we turned it over in the neutral zone to give them some life and they pushed hard, got the tying one and got a break on the overtime one.”
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