Auston Matthews scored with 14 seconds remaining in overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to defeat the visiting Nashville Predators 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Nashville goalie Juuse Saros made a skate save on a William Nylander shot, but the rebound slid to Matthews alone at the bottom of the right circle, where he fired a wrist shot inside the near post for the game-winner.
Matthews, who also had three assists, passed Bill Guerin (429) into ninth place for most goals by United States-born skaters.
Gavin McKenna, the first overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft, scored his first career goal and also had his first assist for Toronto in the 18-year-old’s first multi-point game in four outings.
Nylander scored a goal and had two assists, Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist, and John Tavares also scored for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.
Steven Stamkos and Nils Hoglander each scored two goals, Ryan O’Reilly picked up his 900th career point with an assist, and Filip Forsberg added two assists for Nashville.
Stamkos moved into sole possession of 17th place on the NHL’s all-time goal scoring list with his 626th and 627th career goals, breaking a tie with Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla, who each scored 625.
Saros finished with 32 saves for the Predators.
Nashville, playing its first road game of the season, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on power-play goals. Stamkos snapped in a rebound of a Matthew Wood shot at the 7:13 mark, and Hoglander tucked in a rebound of an Adam Wilsby shot inside the left post at 9:08 of the first period.
Hoglander made it 3-0 at the 3:03 mark of the second period when he slapped in a rebound from the right side of the net for his third goal in two games.
Toronto got back into the game with two goals in a little over two minutes. Tavares started the comeback when he rushed down the left wing and fired a wrist shot bar down. McKenna picked up an assist on the score for his first NHL point. Nylander then, on a power play, buried a rebound of a Matthews shot from the slot for his third goal.
Stamkos made it 4-2 with a wrist shot from the right circle, but Toronto answered just 61 seconds later on McKenna’s first goal, a wrist shot from the right circle into the top far-left corner.
The Maple Leafs tied it 4-4 midway through the third period when Roslovic, left alone at the bottom of the right circle, skated in and fired a wrist shot past Saros’ glove side.
Toronto appeared to take a 5-4 lead at the 11:49 mark when Nylander roofed a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot, but Nashville successfully challenged the play, determining that Nylander was offside entering the zone.
–Field Level Media
