NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs at Dallas Stars - Source: Imagn

3 most impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 5-3 win over Dallas Stars feat. William Nylander

Modified Dec 19, 2024 04:07 GMT

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered Wednesday night's game against the Dallas Stars hoping to collect their second win in their last three games. It was also the first game back at American Airlines Center for ex-Stars blue liner Chris Tanev.

In the end, it was the Leafs who emerged victorious thanks to a vintage performance from sniper William Nylander, as the Leafs earned a 5-3 win, improving to 20-10-2 while the Stars fell to 19-12-0.

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The game started well for the host Stars, who took the 1-0 lead thanks to Sam Steel's fourth goal of the season early in the first period. But another former Stars player, Max Domi, scored his second goal in as many games, knotting the score at 1-1.

Evgenii Dadonov struck just 22 seconds into the second period, giving the Stars the lead. Toronto responded with the first of what would be a pair of goals from Nylander, followed by Nicholas Robertson's fourth of the year.

Just past the midway point of the second period, Robby McMann netted his seventh goal, giving Toronto a two-goal cushion.

While Dallas mounted a comeback effort with Colin Blackwell's third goal, Nylander would seal the win with his second of the night, hitting the vacated net.

Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll made 36 saves, while his counterpart Jake Oettinger only made eight saves on the 12 shots he faced before being pulled after the second period.

3 most impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 5-3 win over Dallas Stars

#1. William Nylander

It was another vintage performance from Nylander, who scored his 19th and 20th goals of the 2024-25 season. He's 1/4 of the famed "Core 4" of the Leafs, and he's showing why he's easily one of the most valuable players to his respective team.

It's the first year of the lengthy eight-year, $92 million contract extension that he agreed to just over one year ago, and he's proving to be worth every dollar he's getting paid.

#2. Joseph Woll

Woll was the far busier of the two goaltenders on the ice tonight, as he was peppered with 39 shots from the Stars.

However, Woll held his ground and made several key saves to frustrate the Stars offense; he turned aside three shots each from Jamie Benn and Mason Marchment, while also stopping five of six shots that Blackwell fired his way.

His best denial came on a 2-on-1 rush, robbing defenseman Miro Heiskanen with a quick glove save:

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#3. Max Domi

The former Stars forward, who joined the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2023 and recently agreed to a contract extension with the club his father played for, has now scored twice in as many games.

He had originally failed to score in each of his first 22 games of the season, but now has goals in consecutive games. Additionally, he also finished with a +3 rating. This will certainly help boost his confidence moving forward.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to continue their winning ways when they face the Buffalo Sabres next at KeyBank Center on Friday.