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Alex Nylander is turning into a steal for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
No one is learning this harder than the Toronto Marlies.
Nylander scored two more times in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, tying the game with 46.6 seconds left before firing home the winner in overtime, giving the Penguins a 3-2 win at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Nylander now has six goals since joining the Penguins at the start of the month when parent club Pittsburgh landed him in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for fellow winger Sam Lafferty.
Four of those goals have come in the last two nights to give the Penguins back-to-back wins over the Marlies. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has now won four of the last five after ending a long losing skid.
After prevailing 5-1 on Friday, though, it didn’t look like any momentum had carried over to Saturday.
Toronto jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Jack Kopacka and Mikhail Abramov, an edge the Marlies would carry into the third period.
But winger Valtteri Puustinen continued his stellar rookie season with a goal off the rush just 3:03 into the third.
The equalizer didn’t come until the final minute with the goalie pulled when Nylander scored. The former top-10 overall draft pick then snapped home the winner just 1:44 into overtime. Puustinen and defenseman Juuso Riikola assisted on both of Nylander’s goals.
Felix Robert and Filip Hallander set up Puustinen’s goal.
With the Penguins continuing to battle a depleted goalie depth chart, Alex D’Orio started for the second time in less than 24 hours, finishing with 22 saves on 24 shots for the win.