Nylander has 3 points, Maple Leafs hold off Stars

TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs scored two goals in 20 seconds in the third period and held on to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

“You kind of feel like we’re letting them hang around again, but what a response coming out,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Auston [Matthews] takes charge of things out there, [Mitchell Marner] a big-time goal, and then with John [Tavares] and that line following up, that was obviously huge.

“It’s just reminding the guys, we made a mistake, a guy gets behind us, penalty-shot goal, but we were playing a great period to that point. Just continue with it and stay with it.”

William Nylander had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs (26-15-8), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games. John Tavares scored for the third straight game and added two assists, and Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist. Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves.

Evgenii Dadonov scored twice, and Scott Wedgewood made 26 saves for the Stars (31-14-6), who had won four in a row and had a six game point streak (5-0-1) end. The Stars were playing the second of a back-to-back after defeating the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Tuesday despite being outshot 48-30.

“Obviously, the special teams were the story of the game,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s where the game is lost. You can’t give up three power-play goals and expect to win on the road anywhere. I think that’s probably the story of the game.

“We’ve got a good penalty kill. I’m confident long term, it has been good and it will be good.”

Toronto went 3-for-3 on the power play.

After Dadonov scored his second of the game on a penalty shot to tie it 3-3 at 11:05 of the third period, Marner scored 32 seconds later to restore the Maple Leafs to a 4-3 lead when he took a pass from Matthews and shot high glove from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

Toronto pushed it to 5-3 just 20 seconds later when Nylander scored his second of the game at 11:57, taking a drop pass from Tavares and shooting blocker side from the left face-off dot.

“That’s a really, really good team on the other side, so I think it was just sticking with it throughout the whole game,” Matthews said. “There’s going to be momentum swings, but I think special teams had a pretty big play into the game tonight, so it was obviously good to see us make good on some of those opportunities and some big goals there at the end to extend the lead. It was nice to get the two points tonight here on home ice.”

Wyatt Johnston cut the lead to 5-4 at 18:35 when he shot past Samsonov’s glove from the top of the left face-off circle with Wedgewood on the bench for an extra attacker.

“Not the easiest coming off the long break and playing a back-to-back, but I think we all know we had it in us to get the win tonight,” Johnston said. “Just the execution, obviously playing a team with all the great offensive players they have, you have to be really good in all areas of the ice and not give them much. It definitely makes it tough give up three goals on the penalty kill.”

Nylander gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 6:34 of the first period when he one-timed a pass from Morgan Rielly from the top of the left circle on a power play.

Jamie Benn tied it 1-1 at 14:52 with his own one-timer on a power play off a pass from Joe Pavelski, who was along the goal line to the right of the net.

Dadonov gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 17:23 of the first period when he carried the puck into the offensive zone, cut into the slot and beat Samsonov five-hole.

“I just think we were a little flat and took us a little bit to get into the game, but the positive thing is we came back and started playing well in the second and third period,” Nylander said.

Tavares tied it 2-2 at 3:40 of the second period when he one-timed a pass from Nylander in the slot on the power play.

Matthews put the Maple Leafs ahead 3-2 at 12:37 on the power play. He stole the puck along the side boards, skated toward the net and shot from the bottom of the left circle off a sprawling Esa Lindell. He has 27 goals in his past 27 games and leads the NHL with 41 in 48 games.

“We had a great pre-scout from our coach and told us what things might be open and we competed hard, too,” Nylander said. “I mean Matthews’ goal, huge wall battle and then taking it to the net, just attacking the net and scoring.”

NOTES: Matthews extended his point streak to eight games (eight goals, five assists). ... Tavares extended his point and goal streak to three games (three goals, three assists). … Stars forward Mason Marchment had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (two goals, four assists).