Filip Gustavsson made 31 saves as the Minnesota Wild edged Toronto 3-1 on Wednesday, sending the Maple Leafs to a third straight regulation loss.
Jared Spurgeon, Marat Khusnutdinov and Marcus Foligno, into an empty net, scored for Minnesota (30-17-4), which has won two straight and improved to 3-5-0 over its last eight games.
After the Wild pushed ahead on Khusnutdinov’s second of the campaign, Spurgeon made it 2-0 on a man advantage with his sixth when Austo Matthews inadvertently tipped the defenceman’s point shot past Joseph Woll.
William Nylander replied for Toronto (30-19-2). Woll stopped 22 shots for the Leafs, who have three goals during their current slide.
The Wild were minus star forward and leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov (lower-body injury). The Russian sniper is set to undergo surgery and is expected to miss at least four weeks.
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Khusnutdinov and Spurgeon.
Matthews hit the post on a shot through traffic later in the period before Nylander rattled Gustavsson’s crossbar on a breakaway in the second.
Nylander cut the deficit in half midway through the third with his team-leading 29th goal of the season, but Foligno iced it late with Woll on the bench for an extra attacker.
The Maple Leafs will start a four-game road trip Saturday against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
