Mitch Marner the overtime hero as Maple Leafs beat Oilers

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Life’s a Mitch.

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Capping a thrilling game on Saturday night, Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner scored at 40 seconds of overtime against the Edmonton Oilers, giving Toronto a 4-3 win at Scotiabank Arena.

Marner kept the puck on a 2-on-1 with John Tavares and fired a shot past Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.

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With Skinner on the bench, Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl shot the puck into an open Leafs net off a scramble at 18:31 of the third to send the game to overtime.

The Leafs scored 59 seconds apart with less than seven minutes to play in the third to take a 3-2 lead.

Bobby McMann’s second goal of the game put the Leafs up by one, coming at 14:07 when he raced past Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm to a loose puck and went to his forehand to fool Skinner.

The Leafs caught a break and Matthew Knies took advantage to tie the game at 13:08. A clearing pass by Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard hit captain Connor McDavid and Knies pounced on the puck to fire a shot past Skinner.

Edmonton took a 2-1 lead at 1:51 of the second period when McDavid scored on a power play.

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A shot by Draisaitl bounced to McDavid, who had an open net with goalie Anthony Stolarz out of position.

The Leafs improved to 5-1-0 in the six games that captain Auston Matthews has missed because of an upper-body injury.

Leafs winger Ryan Reaves was assessed a match penalty at 2:41 of the second period for an illegal check to the head on Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. A match carries an automatic review by the National Hockey League Department of Player Safety.

The Oilers opened the scoring at 1:42 of the first period when Adam Henrique beat Morgan Rielly to the net and put the puck past Stolarz.

McMann tied the game at 3:53.

In a pre-game ceremony, the Leafs honoured defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson for playing in 1,000 NHL games, a milestone reached by the 33-year-old on Wednesday in Washington against the Capitals.

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Leafs general manager Brad Treliving presented Ekman-Larsson with a Tiffany crystal and a silver stick, and had a mini silver stick for Ekman-Larsson’s son Leo.

As Ekman-Larsson and his family watched, congratulations were offered in a video tribute that featured Matthews, Keith Yandle, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Paul Bissonnette, Gustav Forsling, Shane Doan, William Nylander and Mats Sundin.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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