Leafs blow 3-goal lead before edging Utah in shootout

Mitch Marner scored the shootout winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs edged the Utah Hockey Club 4-3 on Monday night in Salt Lake City.

William Nylander, Calle Jarnkrok and Simon Benoit scored in regulation for Toronto, which squandered a 3-0 lead but still snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1).

Joseph Woll made 29 saves for the Leafs, who improved to 9-3-1 over the past 13 games and 19-11-2 on the road this season.

Michael Carcone, Nick Schmaltz and Barrett Hayton responded for Utah, which has dropped back-to-back games, both of which went beyond regulation.

Karel Vejmelka stopped 23 shots in the loss.

Down 3-0, Utah responded with three unanswered in the middle frame, including two in 49 seconds.

Carcone got Utah on the board at 8:14, redirecting a Josh Doan pass up and over Woll's glove.

Schmaltz tipped an Olli Maatta pass past Woll at 9:03.

Utah tied it 3-3 on a power play at 12:11 as Hayton deflected a Mikhail Sergachev point shot past Woll.

Toronto outshot Utah 13-4 in the first period and led 2-0 thanks to a pair of power-play markers.

Nylander opened the scoring, snapping a shot blocker-side past Vejmelka at 12:42, his team-leading 36th goal.

Toronto doubled its lead with 21.9 seconds remaining in the first as Jarnkrok one-timed a Max Domi feed past Vejmelka for his first goal since Jan. 6, 2024.

With the secondary assist, Morgan Rielly (418 assists) moved into seventh on the Maple Leafs' all-time list.

Benoit gave the Toronto a 3-0 lead at 4:48 of the second period as his point shot got past a screened Vejmelka.

On Monday morning, Utah general manager Bill Armstrong announced that defenseman Juuso Valimaki had surgery to repair a torn ACL and would miss eight to nine months.

--Field Level Media