It was a playoff-type atmosphere when the Toronto Maple Leafs took on Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Between controversial hits and big time saves, the Oilers and Maple Leafs went back and forth on goals all night taking the game to overtime where it opened up thanks to it being three-on-three.
Mitch Marner’s overtime goal is the 200th goal of his NHL career.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) November 17, 2024
He is the 16th skater in franchise history to score 200 goals as a Maple Leaf.
Following an end-to-end rush by McDavid, that was broken up by Mitch Marner and the Maple Leafs’ defence, the Maple Leafs took it back the other way on a two-on-one break. Marner, who was the puck handler, decided to hold and shoot — going low blocker side on Stuart Skinner ricocheting the puck off the post and into the net for the overtime winner and his 200th career NHL goal.
It was his sixth goal of the season and team-leading 24th point of the season and it came on the heels of a team effort that included killing a five-minute penalty off and back-to-back goals by Matthew Knies and Bobby McMann to get the Maple Leafs back into the game in the third period.
He is the sixth player from the 2015 NHL Draft – which included McDavid going first overall – to reach the 200-goal milestone, joining McDavid (341), Jack Eichel (216), Mikko Rantanen (274), Kyle Connor (254) and Sebastian Aho (257) as players from that draft to have reached the mark.
As for the Maple Leafs, they are still without their captain, Auston Matthews, but that has never slowed down their other star forward. In fact, with Matthews out of the lineup during his career, Marner has an outstanding 74 points in 60 career games — and he carried on that trend on Saturday night.
This season, Marner has had five multi-point nights without Matthews in the lineup, including Saturday night.
With the milestone goal, Marner also becomes just the 16th player in franchise history to score 200 goals with the Maple Leafs. He ties Charlie Conacher (200) on the franchise’s all-time list at 15th and now sits just one goal back of tying the great Syl Apps for 14th all-time.
The win puts the Maple Leafs at 11-6-2 in 19 games this season. They are second in the Atlantic Division and just one point back of the Florida Panthers who have a game in hand.
Related: Morgan Rielly Moves Up Maple Leafs’ All-Time Goals List
Assuming Marner continues his torrid pace with the Maple Leafs this season, it will be an interesting offseason of negotiations between Brad Treliving and the Marner camp.