Wild send slumping Maple Leafs to third straight loss
Published
TORONTO - Filip Gustavsson made 31 saves as the Minnesota Wild edged Toronto 3-1 on Wednesday, sending the Maple Leafs to a third straight regulation loss.
Jared Spurgeon, Marat Khusnutdinov and Marcus Foligno, into an empty net, scored for Minnesota (30-17-4), which has won two straight and improved to 3-5-0 over its last eight games.
William Nylander replied for Toronto (30-19-2). Joseph Woll stopped 22 shots for the Leafs, who have three goals during their current slide.
The Wild were minus star forward and leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov (lower-body injury). The Russian sniper is set to undergo surgery and is expected to miss at least four weeks.
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Khusnutdinov and Spurgeon.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews hit the post on a shot through traffic later in the period before Nylander rattled Gustavsson's crossbar on a breakaway in the second.
Nylander cut the deficit in half midway through the third with his team-leading 29th goal of the season, but Foligno iced it late with Woll on the bench for an extra attacker.
Takeaways
Leafs: Max Pacioretty (upper-body injury) returned to the lineup following the forward's three-game absence.
Wild: Veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will play in Montreal one more time Thursday when Minnesota visits the Canadiens. The 40-year-old from Sorel, Que., is 10-5-1 with a .904 save percentage and 2.61 goals-against average in his final NHL season.
Key moment
After the Wild pushed ahead on Khusnutdinov's second of the campaign, Spurgeon made it 2-0 on a man advantage with his sixth when Matthews inadvertently tipped the defenceman's point shot past Woll.
Key stat
Kaprizov, who missed his 14th contest because of injury, has 52 points (23 goals, 29 assists) in 2024-25. The 27-year-old entered Wednesday with an average of 1.41 points per contest, which placed him fifth in the NHL.
Up next
Wild: Continue a five-game road trip Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens.
Leafs: Start a four-game road trip Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.