William Nylander scored his team-leading 45th goal of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.
Pontus Holmberg, Auston Matthews and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs (50-26-4, 104 points). Morgan Rielly added three assists, Max Domi had two assists and Joseph Woll stopped 25 shots.
Toronto entered Sunday with a four-point lead over the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division.
Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes (47-28-5, 99 points) and Frederik Andersen made 16 saves.
The Hurricanes failed to set a team record for home wins, finishing with 31 to match their 2005-06 team.
Toronto won the season series 2-1.
The Hurricanes tested Woll often during the first period as they carried the play despite an early Maple Leafs power play.
It was the Maple Leafs who scored first, however, when they put on a late flurry that was against the flow of play for most of the first period. Holmberg took advantage of a rebound to score on a 15-foot wrist shot after Rielly backhanded the puck toward the net from a sharp angle. The goal at 19:43 of the first period was Holmberg’s first since Feb. 25.
Matthews completed a pretty give-and-go with Rielly to score from the right circle at 10:20 of the second period. Matthews started the sequence with a shot after a rush from the neutral zone.
The Hurricanes had only two shots on goal in the second period with the second shot coming in the final minute.
Nylander scored when he tipped in Domi’s shot at 1:25 of the third period.
Carolina had a four-minute power play when Toronto defenseman Christopher Tanev was called for high-sticking and tripping at 4:16 of the third. Woll made some good saves and Toronto’s Scott Laughton hit the post with his shot on a short-handed breakaway, but Carolina broke through near the end of the power play on Aho’s goal with a 39-foot slap shot at 7:58.
Tavares scored at 15:43 of the third with a 20-foot wrist shot to squash Carolina’s comeback hopes.
–Field Level Media
