TORONTO (AP) — Defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored his second goal of the game at 2:17 of overtime to give the Arizona Coyotes a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.
Arizona recovered for its fourth straight victory after blowing a 4-1 lead in the third period. Alex Galchenyuk had a goal and an assist, Travis Boyd and Christian Fischer also scored, and Scott Wedgewood made 34 saves.
“It was a tie game, you can’t get down,” Chychrun said. “It’s like a 0-0 game, you just have to treat it like that and stay in the present. I think when you give up quick ones you can kind of get down, but as a group we just stayed calm and told each other we’re still in this thing.”
Chychrun scored the winner off a pass from Matias Maccelli after Toronto star Auston Matthews felt he was interfered with on the backcheck.
“I felt what I felt,” Matthews said. “Nothing I can change.”
Matthews scored his NHL-leading 44th goal. Alexander Kerfoot had a goal and two assists for Toronto, and Pierre Engvall and William Nylander also scored.
“That stuff takes the wind out of the sails,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “But our guys are pros … credit to them and the effort they put forth in the third period. Didn’t lay down, kept pushing, had plenty of opportunities to win the hockey game.”
Petr Mrazek allowed four goals on 12 shots before being replaced midway through the second period. Recalled on an emergency basis with No. 1 goalie Jack Campbell nursing a rib injury for at least the next two weeks, Swedish rookie Erik Kallgren made seven saves in relief.
“A big moment for me,” Kallgren said. “I was just trying to have fun.”
Kerfoot scored at 3:38 of the third to get Toronto within two. Matthews then moved in alone and scored at 8:07, and Nylander tied it 10 seconds later with hiss 23rd.
Coyotes winger Phil Kessel, who played six seasons with the Leafs from 2009 to 2015, was in the lineup after arriving in Toronto earlier in the day following the birth of his first child.
Kessel played one shift Tuesday night a 9-2 rout at Detroit to keep his ironman streak intact — it now stands at 957 games — before jumping on a charter flight back to Arizona.
“Pretty crazy,” Kessel said. ’I thought she was going to have a kid before I got there.”
UP NEXT
Coyotes: At Boston on Saturday night.
Maple Leafs: Face Buffalo on Sunday in the NHL Heritage Classic at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario.
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