TORONTO — Jared Spurgeon and Marat Khusnutdinov scored in the first period, Filip Gustavsson stopped 31 shots, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 on Wednesday night. Marcus Foligno added an empty-netter in the final minute as Minnesota won its second straight to improve to 3-5-0 in their last eight games.

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had to carry on without goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who has been unavailable for the last several weeks after he underwent a procedure to remove a piece of cartilage in his knee.

Stolarz, who won the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in June as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup, had a 9-5-2 record, 2.15 goals-against average, .927 save percentage and one shutout before undergoing surgery — there was no structural damage found — to deal with a loose piece of cartilage or bone in his knee.

Revenge is best served cold and on the ice… at least in hockey.  Exactly one week after the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Florida Panthers 2-1 at Crypto.com arena in Southern California, the Panthers returned the favor,

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Florida beat Los Angeles.

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for his second shutout of the season, and the Florida Panthers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Wednesday night.

BOTTOM LINE: The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Minnesota Wild hit the ice in a non-conference matchup. Toronto is 19-10-0 at home and 30-18-2 overall. The Maple Leafs have a 13-5-1 record when scoring a power-play goal.

A weekly look at the Toronto Maple Leafs with The Athletic's Jonas Siegel and James Mirtle, including special guests and in-depth coverage of the Blue and White throughout the NHL season ...

“I’m playing with my food here a little bit,” the Florida Panthers’ veteran coach said.

Last night in the NHL, there were only five games on the schedule. However, there was no lack of action. Here are the results and highlights: Sidney Crosby lifted the @penguins to an overtime victory as Pittsburgh joined a pack of eight teams vying for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference –

Brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes each collected a goal and an assist as the New Jersey Devils scored four times in the second period and rolled to a 5-0 rout of the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night in Newark,