ST. PAUL – The more Maple Leafs that get hurt, the more Matt Murray has to work.
But it’s adding up to points for the Leafs on this road trip, a second straight win here on Friday afternoon, in a month they have lost just once in regulation. They are missing four defencemen with injuries and also juggled lines Friday after 34 saves by Murray in Newark on Wednesday.
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Murray’s 23 stops kept them in Friday until a William Nylander goal insured a 4-3 victory. Toronto gets right back to it Saturday night in Pittsburgh, when Murray likely gets a rest.
Murray stayed with Connor Dewar on a second period short-handed breakaway and survived a third-period power play to preserve Toronto’s one-goal lead.
The game within the game was Murray bumping his net off during real or imagined pressure, which had the Wild and their fans in a lather, but only drew a warning from the officials. An ice crew came out to check the pegs before Mats Zuccarello tightened the match.
Nylander’s 11th of the season and another by Calle Jarnkrok came the day after the team learned of Swedish star Borje Salming’s death from ALS. The Leafs wore a commemorative patch for Salming.
Mitch Marner’s opening goal, extending his points streak to 15 games and three off the club record held by Darryl Sittler and Ed Olczyk, was the result of dropping back to the point and firing one that changed direction off a Wild.
After an attempt to send Marner away shorthanded was picked off, Kirill Kaprizov delivered his 12th goal. But it took just 42 seconds for Toronto to retake its lead, Zach Aston-Reese from a bad angle, five-hole through Marc-Andre Fleury. That prompted the Leafs to fire pucks from everywhere in hopes of another fluke.
Coach Sheldon Keefe had shuffled his lineup, bringing Wayne Simmonds back with the aim of countering some of Minnesota’s size, at the expense of Nick Robertson.
Jarnkrok found himself with Marner and John Tavares and helped a screen on the Marner goal, before scoring his fifth on a Mark Giordano rebound, a setup originating with Tavares.
“One thing that he’s shown is that he’s defensively responsible and also that he can score,” Keefe said of Jarnkrok. “If you get him the puck in good spots, he’s going to put it in. He’s shown that in pre-season, in regular season.
“His overall game is starting to trend in the right direction, 5-on-5, good penalty killer, good defensive habits and he gives you absolutely everything he has on every shift.
“We wanted to give him that opportunity and we also like how it shapes out the rest of the lines.”
Alex Kerfoot joined a troika with Simmonds, centred by Pontus Holmberg.
“Getting (Simmonds) in at forward, first it’s overdue because he’s been sitting a long time and it makes a lot of sense, all things considered,” Keefe said.
“They’re a big, physical team and that the same time, we’ve lost a lot of size and experience out of our lineup, on defence in particular.”
The 6-foot-6 Jordan Greenway and hefty Ryan Reeves both took stick penalties, but the Leafs couldn’t convert.
Auston Matthews was held off the scoresheet in consecutive games for the first time this season and was part of a limp Leaf power play that failed to cash on three chances through the first 40 minutes.
lhornby@postmedia.com
