On short rest in Sweden, Wild rally but fall in OT to Maple Leafs
It was a gutty effort to come from two goals down but William Nylander drove the net and beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the game-winning goal in overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Minnesota 4-3 Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden.
Toronto had a day off between the Global Series games while the Wild had to play back-to-back, including Sunday's game against Toronto just 18 hours after Saturday's game against Ottawa ended.
Minnesota trailed 3-1 in the third period but stormed back with goals by Jake Middleton and Mats Zuccarello to force overtime for a second consecutive day, but just like Saturday's shootout loss to the Senators, the Wild came up short in extra time.
Jon Merrill scored 2:37 into the opening period and then it was all Toronto for the next two-plus periods as Auston Matthews and ex-Gopher Matthew Knies scored to give Toronto a 2-1 lead after one. Toronto then went ahead 3-1 when Morgan Reilly scored a little over four minutes into the third period.
Nov 19, 2023; Stockholm, SWE; Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild players are separated after a play during a Global Series NHL hockey game at Avicii Arena.
Credit: Per Haljestam-USA TODAY Sports
But something clicked for the Wild afterward as Jake Middleton blasted a slap shot through traffic into the back of the net to trim the deficit to 3-2 with 13:50 left in the third period, and then Mats Zuccarello tipped a centering pass from Brock Faber into the goal to tie the game 3-3 with 11:18 remaining.
The Wild earned two of a possible four points in Sweden, but the overtime losses mean they haven't won a game since beating the Islanders 12 days ago.
At 5-8-4, the Wild will get another four days off as they return to the United States before hosting the Colorado Avalanche in a nationally televised game on TNT on Friday night.
