Joseph Woll, William Nylander secure Maple Leafs needed win

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Three new Maple Leafs returned that night, it was a crazy finish, Willie and Wall, a huge 2-1 overtime win in Columbus.

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Joseph Wall's 35 saves kept the Leafs in a scoreless game until just 6:30 remained before Zach Werenski tipped the Blue Jackets for their 28th shot. William Nylander tied the game for Easton Cowan with 3:17 to play and then tied it himself late in the extra period.

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Taking the ice to replace an exhausted Matthew Nice in overtime, Nylander picked up the puck to Greaves' left, calmly moved to his right, waited for the Columbus goalie to move out of position, and then fired again into the vacated left side of the net.

It was easy The Leafs' second win in their last nine games. (2-5-2) lifted them out of last place in the Eastern Conference after the Buffalo Sabers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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For the three returning Leafs, who were greatly missed – Auston Matthews, Nice and Nicholas Roy — It was a difficult game with many icings, offsides and stoppages, as well as three penalties in the first period against their club.

Cue Wall, whose work included a short-handed 3-on-1 save from Miles Wood and six major shots from Werenski and Adam Fantilli, who in tandem were poison for the Leafs. The Jackets were heading into a three-game series. Wall continues to strengthen his position in the No. 1 position, and Anthony Stolarz's injury still keeps him off the ice. Jet Greaves also supported the Jackets until the very end.

But the Toronto team that held opposing two or fewer goals only twice on October 16, he reached the third period without missing a single one.

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Decisive victory in a tense Eastern Conference

They entered the game last, and while this is currently the toughest situation in the East since November 2022, the Leafs still have a lot of catch-up hockey ahead of them. With US Thanksgiving being the starting point for the playoffs in recent years, with 75% of the spots decided, they will have to go on for four more games on their longest road trip.

Toronto scored what would have been Columbus' first goal on the quick Werenski early in the middle period. The Leafs video crew caught Kent Johnson offside, who also helped out. Oliver Ekman-Larsson due to an unsuccessful pinch that caused a stir.

The judges quickly wrote themselves into the storyline by calling out Ekman-Larsson, Dakota Mermis and Roy, respectively, the first two who could also see the Jackets pairing work. But Toronto survived a scoreless frame, with Matthews hitting the post, Nice nearly missing the rebound into an empty net and a couple more chances for him on Greaves' doorstep.

Coach Craig Berube selected Max Domi to play left wing with Matthews and Nice, in hopes that Domi would fly under the radar as well. This meant that John Tavares, Nylander and rookie Cowan were able to take the pressure off the front line.

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