Maple Leafs' Craig Berube gives his thoughts on William Nylander hitting 45-goal mark

William Nylander scored his 45th goal of the season on Sunday night as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. Nylander's goal came at 1:25 of the third period when he tipped in a pass from Max Domi at the top of the crease.

Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube praised Nylander's achievement:

"He has scored goals all year for us. He has been great. He had a real good game in the second and third.

“That line was good in the second and third. I put Max (Domi) up there tonight with those guys, and they ended up getting a couple of goals, so it was (positive). It is what we need out of him. We need him to produce but also do the job defensively." (8:50)

Along with William Nylander's goal, Pontus Holmberg, Matthews and John Tavares also scored, while Joseph Woll had 25 stops for Toronto. With a 50-26-4 record, the Leafs lead the Atlantic Division with 104 points.

"I think you always want to be creating something," William Nylander said of the play. "That was just a great play by 'Doms' to find me there. I just tapped my stick on the ice there. I didn't have to do much."

For the Hurricanes, Sebastian Aho scored, while Frederik Andersen had 16 saves.

The Maple Leafs have two regular season games remaining before the playoffs: against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday and against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

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William Nylander on Leafs' 4-1 win against Hurricanes

Pontus Holmberg got the Leafs on the board first, scoring on a rebound of Rielly's shot to make it 1-0 with 17 seconds left in the first period.

Matthews then made it 2-0 at 10:20 in the second period, scoring with a one-timer from the right face-off circle. In the third period, William Nylander increased the lead to 3-0.

"I mean woller (Joseph Woll) made a couple of really huge saves, and I mean we got a nice goal and to get the lead in the first which maybe we didn’t deserve, but we battled and I mean stuck with it and we're able to score a coupel there in the in the second and the third." Nylander said.

Aho responded with a power-play goal at 7:58 for Carolina , firing a one-timer from the top of the right circle off a pass from Seth Jarvis to make it 3-1.

John Tavares sealed it at 15:43, scoring in the slot after Domi collected the rebound of his own shot, making it 4-1.