William Nylander had two assists and Morgan Rielly scored the go-ahead goal to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
The assists were the first points of the season for Nylander, who missed the first 28 games before signing a six-year deal worth $41.7 million.
The Maple Leafs won for the third time in four road games. They dominated the first period but only had a goal from Tyler Ennis to show for it.
Patrick Marleau and John Tavares also scored for Toronto.
Carolina tied the score 1-all at 12:44 in the second period with a goal from captain Justin Williams.
Rielly had the answer for the Maple Leafs only 67 seconds later. His 10th goal of the season appeared to go in off the stick of Carolina defenceman Dougie Hamilton.
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Rielly made a beautiful pass in front of the net, and by two Carolina defenders, to Andreas Johnsson. Hamilton broke up the pass before it got to Johnsson and it went into the net past goalie Petr Mrazek.
Toronto, which had lost two in a row, had a 13-3 shots advantage through the first half of the first period and dominated the opening stanza.
But Mrazek made a tough sliding save on Johnsson at 6:47 to keep Toronto off the board early.
Mrazek stopped a shot from the point by Travis Dermott but couldn’t control the rebound. Ennis did and flipped it into the net for a 1-0 lead at 8:35.
Williams, who also scored in the Hurricanes’ win at Anaheim last Friday, was able to tie it when he beat Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen for a power-play goal in the second period.
The Hurricanes were just happy to be home safely after a three-game road trip. Their charter plane had to make an emergency landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, early Saturday morning after the flight back from a 4-1 win at Anaheim.
Mrazek stopped 25 shots, but without centre Jordan Staal (concussion) or leading scorer Michael Ferland for the final two periods, Carolina didn’t have the firepower to keep up with the talented Maple Leafs.
Nylander, who assisted on Rielly’s goal, helped stretch Toronto’s lead in the third period. The right wing set up Marleau for an easy finish of a 2-on-1 break at 5:49.
Tavares added a goal at 8:29 in the third, his team-best 19th of the season.
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