The Toronto Maple Leafs will have one more chance to take advantage of the home-heavy portion of their schedule Thursday night in their clash with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Toronto is 8-4-2 in 14 home games this season, playing over two-thirds of its schedule to date on home ice.
The Maple Leafs then will embark on a stretch of six straight games on the road, where they are 1-5-0. Toronto lost 6-3 to Columbus on Oct. 29 in one of those road defeats and will again visit Columbus on Nov. 26 during its upcoming trip.
Despite the home-friendly schedule, the Maple Leafs lost five straight games before snapping the streak Tuesday with a 3-2 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues.
The Blue Jackets have had a more balanced schedule and opened a four-game road trip Tuesday with a 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. They are 5-5-1 on the road.
William Nylander, who batted the puck into his own goal early in the game against the Blues, scored in overtime for Toronto.
“I think it was a nice win after the tough stretch,” Nylander said. “Just battling and competing to grind out a win, it was nice. I think that’s what is needed to be a good team and to be able to win those kinds of games. We were losing a lot of games, losing guys. That’s a lot of adversity right there.”
Matthew Knies joined Toronto’s injury list when he was a late scratch Tuesday with a lower-body injury. The list includes Auston Matthews, Chris Tanev and Anthony Stolarz.
“When I look at the team and everything going on with the injuries and everything, it could have been easy for our guys to say, ‘Well, we’re all banged up, we got nobody,'” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “But I didn’t get that at all. Our guys competed really hard. I’m proud of them, the way they competed and stuck together.”
Nylander’s game-winner was his 14th career overtime goal, matching Matthews and Mats Sundin for the most in team history.
Nylander has recorded 27 points (nine goals, 18 assists) in 17 games.
Defenseman Troy Stecher played his first game with Toronto after he was claimed off waivers Saturday from the Edmonton Oilers. He played 13:31 and had one shot on goal.
The Blue Jackets had a five-game points streak (3-0-2) end with the loss to the Jets.
They were completing a back-to-back after defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 Monday in a shootout.
“It just seemed like every time we had a little push, then it sagged again on us a little bit,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “We’ll have a look at the tape and figure that out. But again, we’re in the hockey game for the most part early. Like I said, it just got away from us at the end.”
Zach Werenski scored on Tuesday to become the first Blue Jackets defenseman to reach 400 career points (119 goals, 281 assists).
“I felt like we had some jump tonight,” Werenski said. “I felt like it wasn’t for lack of effort. It was tough to create. They didn’t really give us much. A couple breakdowns here and there, and it’s in the back of our net. So I didn’t hate the way we worked or played, but we can eliminate some of those breakdowns and we’re probably in a closer game.”
