Maple Leafs 2, Wild 1

William Nylander scored 1:05 into overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Friday night.

David Kampf also scored for Toronto (36-15-8), and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves. Nylander added an assist to give him 70 points on the season.

The Maple Leafs improved to 6-8 in OT this season after starting an ugly 1-6. That forced coach Sheldon Keefe to tweak his approach in 3-on-3 by putting a defensive forward out to take the initial faceoff.

“Overtime was an issue for us,” Keefe said. “We changed our strategy a little bit in terms of how we started, how we deploy the guys. The luck has gone our way a little bit in terms of getting us more time with the puck.

“It’s given more opportunities for players like Will to make plays like that.”

Minnesota (32-21-6) had won four in a row, including a 2-0 victory at Columbus on Thursday. Brandon Duhaime scored for the Wild, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 stops.

“We liked everything about our game tonight — except missing one point,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said.

The Leafs are set to head out on a five-game road trip that includes their annual swing through Western Canada. They won’t play again at Scotiabank Arena again until March 11.

“We’re going to be in a lot of those games down the stretch and in the playoffs,” Toronto defenseman Mark Giordano said of Friday’s razor-thin margin. “You gotta take what’s there and not force it, not get frustrated.”

Nylander stripped Frederick Gaudreau off the puck in the Minnesota zone and then dangled around Wild forward Matt Boldy before beating Gustavsson for his 33rd goal of the season.

“I knew there was a forward there,” Nylander said. “Just tried to take it to the net. I saw that he was kind of flat-footed.

“It was gonna be hard if I came with some speed.”

The Wild opened the scoring on a strange first-period sequence. Duhaime’s centering pass went off Toronto’s Calle Jarnkrok and sneaked by Samsonov for his seventh.

The Leafs responded before the period was over. Kampf got his sixth from in tight off a Nylander setup from behind the net.

Playing their first game against an opponent in a postseason spot at the start of play since Feb. 1 against Boston, the Leafs got a power play in the second, but came up empty.

The Leafs’ fifth-ranked man advantage got another opportunity with under eight minutes left in the third, but Gustavsson stopped a Nylander one-timer.

The Wild then got their first power play with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, only to have Samsonov and Toronto’s penalty killers hold firm.

Keefe said before the game that goaltender Matt Murray (ankle) is expected to join the team at practice Saturday. The 28-year-old Murray hasn’t played since getting pulled Jan. 17 after allowing four goals on eight shots in a 5-4 overtime victory against Florida.

Sabres 3, Panthers 1

Jeff Skinner scored twice and Craig Anderson made 50 saves against his former team, leading Buffalo over Florida.

The 41-year-old Anderson spent three seasons with the Panthers (2006-09) and still maintains a home a few miles north of their arena. He helped Buffalo get to 64 points and pull into a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with Detroit and Florida.

The Sabres have not been to the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2011 — the longest such drought in the NHL.

Buffalo also got a power-play goal from Alex Tuch, and Tage Thompson had three assists.

Carter Verhaeghe scored his 31st of the season for the Panthers — who were playing without their two top centers in Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett due to injuries. Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in the loss.

Hurricanes 4, Senators 0

Carolina's Antti Raanta made 32 saves for his third shutout in 21 appearances this season.

Brent Burns, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Brady Skjei scored in Carolina’s fifth straight win and 12th in 13 games overall. Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had two assists.

Ottawa was blanked for the second time this season. Senators goalie Cam Talbot, who returned after a nine-game absence with a lower-body injury, stopped 26 shots.

Canadiens 5, Flyers 2

Jesse Ylonen had a goal and an assist, leading Montreal to the road win.

Chris Tierney, David Savard, Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki also scored for Montreal, which followed up Tuesday’s impressive win over New Jersey with another solid performance. Jake Allen made 24 saves.

Owen Tippett and Ivan Provorov scored for Philadelphia, which has lost seven of nine since the All-Star break. Carter Hart made 26 saves.

Avalanche 5, Jets 1

Nathan MacKinnon scored 19 seconds in, and Colorado got four goals on its first five shots.

MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher each had a goal and assist. Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto also scored for the Avalanche (32-19-5), who are 5-0-1 in their past six games and 12-2-2 in their last 16.

Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for Colorado, which also has won four straight on the road.

Mason Appleton scored for the Jets (35-23-1), who are 1-4-0 in their past five games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 of 26 shots before he was replaced by David Rittich to start the third period. Rittich made 10 saves.