Nylander has 3 points, Maple Leafs hold off Stars

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.

After Dadonov scored his second of the game on a penalty shot to tie it 3-3 at 11:05 of the third period, Mitchell Marner scored 32 seconds later to restore the Maple Leafs lead at 4-3 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 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.

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.

Nylander’s power-play goal put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 at 6:34 of the first period when he one-timed a pass from Morgan Rielly at the top of the left circle.

Jamie Benn tied it 1-1 at 14:52 on the power play with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Joe Pavelski, who was at 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 shot between Samsonov’s pads.

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 up 3-2 at 12:37 when he stole the puck along the side boards, skated towards 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.