Maple Leafs top Stars as Nylander scores in 5th straight

William Nylander scored a goal in his fifth consecutive contest as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs skated to a 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Auston Matthews and defenseman Tyson Barrie each collected a goal and an assist and Zach Hyman and Andreas Johnsson also tallied for the Maple Leafs, who set a franchise record by scoring at least four goals in eight straight road games.

Toronto's Mitch Marner set up a pair of goals to boost his team-leading assist total to 37 and Frederik Andersen finished with 31 saves. Alexander Radulov scored a pair of goals, Denis Gurianov also tallied and Ben Bishop turned aside 29 shots for the Stars.

Marner set up Matthews' team-leading 36th goal to open the scoring in the first period before his backhanded feed from along the right-wing boards found Hyman to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead early in the second. Hyman's goal was his 14th of the season and fourth in six games. Toronto took advantage of defenseman Jamie Oleksiak's turnover as Barrie unleashed a blast from just above the right circle that beat Bishop to net the Maple Leafs a 3-1 advantage with 8:02 remaining in the second period.

Radulov converted Radek Faksa's centering feed to halve the deficit with 58 seconds remaining in the second period, but Nylander cleaned up a rebound to regain Toronto's two-goal edge at 3:28 of the third. The goal was Nylander's career-high 24th of the season. Radulov deflected defenseman Miro Heiskanen's shot past Andersen to cut the Maple Leafs' lead to 4-3 less than three minutes later. The Stars pressed for the equalizer before Johnsson's empty-net goal seal the win.

Marner wired a pass across his body to an unmarked Matthews, who beat Bishop from in close to open the scoring at 12:18 of the first period. Gurianov forged a tie more than five minutes later, reeling in a pass from defenseman John Klingberg at center ice and turning on the jets before beating Andersen for his 13th goal of the season.