William Nylander reached 300 career NHL goals on Saturday night, scoring twice as the Toronto Maple Leafs routed the Edmonton Oilers 7-2 in Edmonton for their fourth straight win. The milestone came in a game Toronto controlled from the third period on, scoring four times after the second intermission to turn a contest into a rout.
Nylander scored two of Toronto’s four third period goals. Jack Roslovic recorded a goal and an assist, while Auston Matthews, Troy Stecher, Zack MacEwen and Vinni Lettieri also scored, and Kirill Marchenko added two assists. Anthony Stolarz stopped 30 shots for his fourth victory of the season.
A streak built on depth
The win extended Toronto’s winning streak to four games and improved the Leafs to 7-4-2, their first four game win streak since January. That detail matters because this was not a one line performance. Six different Leafs scored, and the goals came from across the lineup rather than from one hot scorer carrying the team.
Edmonton, which had won three in a row before Saturday, fell to 8-2-1. Leon Draisaitl scored twice for the Oilers to push his league leading total to 12 goals, sharing the NHL lead with Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov. Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his season opening points streak to 11 games, giving him 33 points in 11 games. Tristan Jarry made 25 saves in the loss.
What 300 goals means
As NBC Sports reported, Nylander’s milestone arrived in a road game against the team with the two most productive scorers in the league, which makes the margin of victory more striking. Toronto did not just beat Edmonton, it outscored a team built around McDavid and Draisaitl by five goals in their own building.
The Leafs now travel to Calgary for a Monday night game, while the Oilers host Detroit the same night. A four game streak is still only a streak, but a 7-2 win in Edmonton, with a 300 goal milestone attached, is the kind of result that changes how a team sees itself. Toronto arrived as a good team finding form. It left looking like a team that believes it can beat anyone, anywhere.
