The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a three-way fight for first place in the Atlantic Division with 10 games left entering their road contest against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
And despite a last-minute comeback to gain a point in their race against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Maple Leafs (43-25-4, 90 points) fell 6-5 in a shootout to the host San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
William Nylander and John Tavares scored in the last minute of regulation with goalie Joseph Woll pulled for the sixth attacker to send the game into overtime. But Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini scored in the shootout for the Sharks while Nylander picked up Toronto’s lone tally.
The Maple Leafs have lost two of their last three (1-1-1).
“It was great to compete right to the end, find a way to earn a point,” Tavares said. “(We) had plenty of opportunities to win that game in extra time. We got to find a little more consistency here.”
The tying goal, with 14 seconds left, was Nylander’s second of the game to give him 42 for the season. Tavares added an assist to go along with his 33rd goal, while Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist and Scott Laughton also scored for Toronto. Mitch Marner had three assists and Woll made 30 saves.
Nylander is the fourth Maple Leaf with three consecutive 40-goal seasons, joining Matthews, Rick Vaive and Lanny McDonald.
Matthews has 28 goals this season and Marner has 89 points (22 goals, 67 assists).
“We did a great job at the end of the game to get a point. We had a lot of good looks in OT that didn’t go in,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We didn’t play well in the first period.”
The Kings (40-22-9, 89 points) are second in the Pacific Division but lost 4-0 to the host Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night. Los Angeles had won four in a row and nine of the previous 10.
“The reasons why we’ve been winning games is playing hard, tracking, playing as a group,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “When we’re not moving our feet, we’re playing slower out there and it’s not to our identity.”
David Rittich stopped 22 shots, but the Kings gave up three goals in the second period.
“We didn’t have our best stuff, there’s no question,” Hiller said. “We didn’t connect on much. I just didn’t think we were very good. We didn’t give them a lot, but we just didn’t create much ourselves. Just weren’t sharp.”
Kings star defenseman Drew Doughty played his 1,200th NHL game. He is the 39th defenseman in NHL history and fifth active blueliner to reach that mark. He joins Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Jack Johnson among active defensemen.
Adrian Kempe is Los Angeles’ leading goal-scorer and point producer with 29 goals and 58 points. Kevin Fiala is second in goals for the Kings with 28, and 37-year-old Anze Kopitar is second in points with 57 (18 goals, 39 assists).
–Field Level Media
