The Toronto Maple Leafs pumped the brakes on a six-game losing streak thanks to the soft hands of rookie Nikita Soshnikov.
The 22-year-old beat New York Islanders goaltender Thomas Greiss with a deceptive backhand in the skills competition Wednesday to give the Maple Leafs a 4-3 victory.
The win snapped the Maple Leafs' six-game skid, which had seen their past five losses come in the form of one-goal defeats.
The goal proved to be only Soshnikov's latest achievement to catch the eye of head coach Mike Babcock, who made it clear that the Russian and fellow rookie Zach Hyman - who scored his second goal of the season Wednesday - have futures with the big club.
Mike Babcock: "Hyman and (Soshnikov) are here to stay. They're too good and too fast."
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 10, 2016
"He's not intimidated by anything," Babcock said of Soshnikov.
William Nylander also received accolades from Babcock, who called Wednesday's performance his best game yet.
The Maple Leafs seemed destined for yet another one-goal loss after Ryan Strome put the Islanders up 3-2 with 5:19 remaining in regulation, until Nylander responded with a power-play marker with just 1:13 left to send the game to extra time.
Wait, maybe nobody told William Nylander about the losing one-goal games thing
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) March 10, 2016
The Maple Leafs will look to string together back-to-back wins for the first time since Feb. 2 and 4 when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
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