Road Warriors in Smashville

It was a night the Maple Leafs’ century belonged to Rasmus Sandin.

With his opening National Hockey League goal and a two-point night, the rookie Swedish defenceman became the first Toronto player born in the 2000s to score and appeared to be having the time of his life — even if he looked too young to think of celebrating in a Smashville honky tonk.

After the 5-2 win over the Predators, he posed with the souvenir puck that William Nylander retrieved for him, wearing a mile-wide grin.

“I’ve had a lot of dreams about how I’d do the (goal) celebration — but I didn’t do anything, except for the screaming,” Sandin said. “I was standing a little bit behind the play, the puck popped out and I saw at the last second that he (Pekka Rinne) was covering the low ice and leaning forward, so I put it high.”

Also looking for Sandin following the game at Bridgestone Arena was defenceman Jake Muzzin, who had put up pre-game money for the winning goal in his return from injury and wanted to pay the kid.

“He’s a great player, right place, right time, he picks his spots,” Muzzin praised. “He’s very poised for a young fella back there. I remember my (first NHL goal).”

For the rest of the Leafs, the victory was a blessed relief after a soul-searching all-star break preceded by one victory in six games. It’s also apparent that the arm injury that took winger Kasperi Kapanen out of the game after one period is not serious, with negative X-rays and Kapanen fine to get in the chow line after the game. But he will be examined again Tuesday in Dallas.

It’s still going to be a long haul back to playoff positioning, but the Leafs are within two points of the pack and the play of Sheldon Keefe’s ‘old’ Leafs was evident, including Frederik Andersen in net with 34 saves, 14 in a busy first period.

“We had good (team) talks to try and get better at certain things,” Andersen said. “Like everyone at this time of year, we want to push and get better. This is a good first step.”

Andersen was there to clean up some odd-man rushes caused by Leafs jumping in too far and one nail-biter when Tyson Barrie’s stick was lifted in the slot. Andersen got across to foil Viktor Arvidsson on Nashville’s only power play.

Kapanen’s injury meant a quick promotion for another player returning from injury. Trevor Moore moved up from the fourth line to the third, joining Pierre Engvall and Andreas Johnsson.

But the Leafs were up a goal after losing Kapanen, starting with Nylander taking a perfect long lob from Sandin to get his career best 23rd goal and fourth in as many games. That also stopped the Rinne hex on the Leafs, two straight shutouts with their last goal against him back on March 28, 2018.

Zach Hyman answered Mikael Granlund’s goal for the Preds and Sandin’s winner came after Alex Kerfoot was having a great shift, capped by a drive to the net, the rebound out to an uncovered Sandin.

The club’s first-round pick in 2018, Sandin made the team out of camp when Travis Dermott was hurt, but was clearly not ready as the Toronto stumbled early under Mike Babcock and the kid was pushed around. A return to the Marlies and a strong showing at the world juniors boosted his confidence.

It was Auston Matthews’ first game since his sore wrist became news, but he leaned into the opening faceoff very hard to beat Ryan Johansen on his way to winning nine of 13 draws. His empty-netter was for No. 35 in his quest for 50 goals with 32 games remaining.

When Jason Spezza beat Rinne with a strange one from a sharp angle it gave the Leafs seven straight road games with at least four goals for the third time in club history and the first since 1983.

Arvidsson drew the Preds closer, but Nashville, which has failed to catch fire since changing coaches, remained at the bottom of the Central Division.

“A game like this, you’re not really sure what you’ll get,” Keefe said of one practice. “We executed well enough to score enough goals. I liked parts of our game and other parts we want to make sure we continue to grow.”

Welcome back to the road to victory. Now it's onto Big D.