welcome back to toronto. mike babcock during the last tv time-out brings everybody together. he knows detroit is going to put a push on, he was their coach for ten years. he was telling them establish a presence in front of our goalie and keep everything to the outside. >> john: 3:45 left. regulation time. brendan smith back to get it. his team down by two. keep an eye on jared coreau, see if jeff blashill goes with an early hook. morgan rielly coming back. out of the corner along the boards. back out to center. frans nielsen. hard on the back-check that time on nylander, as it kicks around. nielsen back out. picked off by roman polak. zach hyman, a stick-check for nielsen on him. kadri. right back to the "d." gardiner this way by hyman.

do battle with jonathan ericsson down low. hyman. ericsson gets in the way. detroit's on it. xavier ouellet. cross ice for tomas tatar. roman polak. leafs right back at it. connor brown has scored tonight. from the corner. rolls around. located by hyman off the stick of jared coreau. ouellet. auston matthews. sends it in for hyman. zach hyman in back of the goal. 2:37 on the clock. hyman double-teamed. salt away a few seconds along the boards. a smart play. now henrik zetterberg hands it off. >> pierre: i think at some point he's -- >> john: looking at the bench. halfway out. >> pierre: there he comes. >> john: you see it. 2:19s on the clock. six skaters for detroit. zetterberg from the corner. back of the goal. brought this way by tatar. checked by polak. along the boards now.

they force it to the point. brendan smith inserts. see it roll around. zetterberg in control. just about two minutes left. clear it all the way across. dekeyser. to the corner. zetterberg muscled on the play. now zetterberg through the slot. good positioning that time, but not out. van riemsdyk. here's zetterberg. henrik zetterberg holding onto it. chance. they score! the follow-up, and i believe it's dylan larkin. sneaking in on the weak side and the red wings are within one. >> pierre: john, you called it, toronto was in perfect shape and it leads to a turnover. right here they don't get the puck out. james van riemsdyk turns the puck over. quick counter for detroit. henrik zetterberg, composure, then the quick hands right there from dylan larkin. well, great job by jeff blashill getting his goalie out. they go on the attack. babcock told his players what they wanted. look at all the blue sweaters down low. because of the turnover by van

riemsdyk, the puck doesn't come out and ends up going in the net from dylan larkin. >> john: the detroit boy, dylan larkin, with his 11th goal of the season. that leads detroit. coreau for now. 1:40 on the clock. puck deflects. we get a whistle with 1:40 left. >> pierre: well, i saw him talking with jeff blashill, and as soon as the puck is in the offensive zone, coreau's coming again. he's well aware of it. if the puck was being faced off in front of the toronto bench rather than the detroit bench, i bet coreau would be halfway. he's still in his crease because of where the puck is being dropped. >> john: a spy on coreau. kadri. and zetterberg on the draw. tomas tatar jockeying for position with leo komarov, that's why we have a slight delay. dylan larkin, his 11th from

henrik zetterberg. the veteran sets up the young player in his second season. now zetterberg's given the boot. mantha will come in. two centers out for toronto. nikita soshnikov is out there but he loses the draw. 1:35 left in the centennial classic. and it's been -- kronwall through the middle. right on the tape. here comes smith. coreau. his shot by andersen. the follow-up. they whack at it. kicks around. brendan smith. short side. hung on to by andersen. >> pierre: remember now detroit does not have any time-outs left. they utilized it when things were looking bleak for them. good job by brendan smith. look how close that is to going in. the right tag comes out, the right skate comes out. it's a good thing the skate was there.

>> john: zetterberg, again, will take an important draw. auston matthews is out for mike babcock. >> pierre: that's the story line that's been going on all game long. mike said, hey, i'm not afraid of playing against anybody including henrik zetterberg. >> john: took the opening face-off and it's been the story throughout. zetterberg. not a clean face-off. a veteran linesman there, greg driscoll. >> pierre: two great linesmen working this game. really, really top end linesmen working this game. >> john: dylan larkin now and matthews. and divorski with a little bit of coaching here noand now we'r ready. off the draw. mantha. along with connor brown. finally a clean face-off. larkin.

on the boards now. they move it back. kronwall goes cross ice with it. zetterberg tried to get it through the slot. knocked down by matthews. controlled by hyman. zach hyman will dump it out of play with 1:03 on the clock. >> pierre: off the draw. chance for detroit. tomas tatar, quick release. as they were going back into their own zone, mike babcock yelled at zach hyman, zach, where are you supposed to be? and hyman goes, i know, coach, i know. now babcock will call a time-out. and let's see who he talks to first because he was not happy with zach hyman. and you see him, he's looking right at hyman right now. >> john: again, tomorrow, you can celebrate the tradition of the bridgestone nhl winter

classic as the blackhawks take on the st. louis blues at busch stadium. that's tomorrow at 1:00 eastern on nbc. and pierre, when you look at who's on the ice, babcock has full trust in his youth. >> pierre: yeah, they got lot of layers of athleticism and you know what, this is the future. much like when he was in detroit and he had players like datsyuk and kronwall and henrik zetterberg. much the same. the baton was passed in detroit and it worked out really well and you see what he's doing here in toronto. >> john: hyman, matthews, and brown up front. zetterberg will draw. see mantha, vanek, kronwall, tatar. brendan smith is in back of them. there he is. smith holding on to it. right through the slot. shot attempt. it goes wide.

vanek. defended by morgan rielly. 53 seconds left. connor brown attempts to get it out for toronto. through center. mantha lays it along. zetterberg. knocked out of midair by morgan rielly. tatar's on him. 40 seconds left. zetterberg for vanek. vanek with a power move out in front. cleaned up. heavy hit. my goodness. kronwall wings out his man, connor brown. zetterberg holding onto it. rielly defends for toronto. hyman gets to it. they cover it up. now it's controlled here by brendan smith. up top. kronwall across for tatar. his shot blocked by rielly. broken stick. 15 seconds left. brendan smith with a shot off a body in front. control the wall. nine seconds left. brendan smith. and it kicks to the outside. three seconds left. tough angle for tatar. stopped by andersen. they score! anthony mantha at the horn, and

i think he beat the clock. we'll see. >> pierre: john, toronto had chances to get the puck up and out. they didn't get it up and out. but the league makes the official call, john, so we can't go by the clock but let's see what this clock shows. based on that, it's a goal. but, again, that's not the official clock that the league is going to look at. but you talk about a team that didn't go down, didn't quit. jeff blashill and his group deserve a ton of credit. >> john: yes. >> pierre: deserve a ton of credit. this thing was way out of control for them. he reeled it back in. and he's coming over to look at the replay monitor right now with pete van zandt, the trainer. blashill's looking at it. their coaches think it's a goal. >> john: anthony mantha, if so,

his second goal of this game. his ninth goal of the season. we're going to take another look, pierre. >> pierre: how about all the times, john -- >> john: i think he did. >> pierre: john, all the times toronto had to get it out, they didn't get it out. zetterberg doesn't kick the puck in. almost like he used his skate to get it to mantha then mantha t puts it in the sprawling net. so many things there. is there goaltending interference? is the puck kicked in? now they're going to look at it, the officials, obviously mantha scored with his stick, but so many different things to look at including how much time was left on the clock. >> john: so the review, dan o'rourke, one of our two referees along with brad myer on the headsets. and they could have a second, maybe a fraction of a second left here. one more time with the traffic. the bounce. and maybe the cash-in by anthony mantha. >> pierre: you see thomas vanek there, i think that's one of the things they're looking at.

is there goaltender interference? tyler bozak went to the linesman, said are they looking at the potential of goaltender interference, not just the time on the clock, johnny? >> john: right. remember, that's initiated by the league, too, right? >> pierre: correct. >> john: this is not a challenge by the coach. this is strictly the review and then the possible look here as you point out for interference on the goaltender. talk about drama. >> pierre: oh, man. >> john: isn't this great? >> pierre: i know this is your first outdoor game. >> john: yeah. >> pierre: you picked a good one to be at. >> john: i got a good seat, i can tell you that. >> pierre: oh, man. way to go, johnny. what does bouch think of that? where's our goalie? >> john: he's not gone? >> pierre: he might have a flight to catch, i don't know. okay. yeah. this is the official look from the league.

we can go with this. >> pierre: i think they're looking at it more than just the clock. babcock wants to know if that's interference. that's one of the things i brought up. i think they're looking at what thomas vanek did as he went to the net, john. >> john: well, depends on when he enters the crease, too. if the puck's there, he can get after it, right? here we go. there's dan o'rourke, the interpretation. >> referee: upon review of the play, we still have a good goal on the ice. reset the clock to 1.1. >> john: a game for anthony mantha. >> pierre: great game for mantha. amazing game for zetterberg and fantastic game for their coach. jeff blashill reeled this game in for his team. at the beginning of the game when it wasn't going great, he changed the tactics. it worked. when they fell behind, called a time-out. settle this guy down. it worked. they are going to overtime. amazing. >> john: each team has secured

one point in the standings and now they didn't do this 100 years ago. we're going to get sudden death overtime. three-on-three hockey. anthony mantha at the horn. beats frederik andersen. the centennial classic in toronto goes to overtime. right after this. ♪ if you're gonna make an entrance... [car driving upon the water] ♪

glorious afternoon that has turned into an exciting evening. see anthony mantha, young play were his leader, henrik zetterberg. what a comeback by the detroit red wings. the goaltenders, frederik andersen and jared car roreau td end. long change. three-on-three overtime. pierre, what do you think? >> pierre: i think we're in for a lot of fun. live legs out there with auston

matthews, morgan rielly, connor brown. much quicker than the three guys detroit has on the ice. let's see how it plays out. >> john: zetterberg, dekeyser and mantha. rielly. connor brown. through the middle. scoop back. rielly. in the zone. cutting. shot nullified. a good block that time by danny dekeyser. connor brown. auston matthews. looking for rielly. off the stick. rielly out of the corner. matthews let it go. dekeyser will jump on it. early stages of overtime. brown. the pass. brought in by matthews. power move. good stick we coreau. a couple of times. and detroit will dodge that. anthony mantha. his heroics have tied the game. mantha. moving up. out by jake gardiner. mantha will take it all the way back. turning with it now is frans nielsen. just about a minute gone in o.t.

brendan smith for detroit. they'll complete the change. it's a steal. nylander out of the corner. william nylander out in front. what a save on nazem kadri. now it's brought out by tomas tatar. his shot deflects high off the stick of jake gardiner and sales out of play. >> pierre: resounding call by you, john. what a save is right. nazem kadri driving to the net. he wants the puck. he takes the relay from behind the icing line. what a response by the left pad of coreau. feed out front from william nylander. there's the left pad of jared coreau. >> john: and the frustration of nazem kadri. 3:44 on the clock. young goaltender's played well for the wings. out of the corner now. zaitsev. tyler bozak along with leo komarov. nyquist.

larkin. kronwall for jeff blashill. zaitsev who's created -- they move it up. bozak. see it up close. nyquist. the steal. now with larkin. nyquist. a chance. great play defensively. zaitsev. co komarov through the middle. will take it back. two minutes gone in overtime. through the middle. marner. this way. rielly. marner. great stick by jared coreau. tatar. just inside his own line. red wings are changing. they'll retreat. wait for a friend. out to center ice. morgan rielly will draw it back for toronto. marner scored a beautiful goal tonight.

swerving out to center ice. zach hyman. move up on ouellet. played along the boards. marner in support for toronto. zach hyman again. taken down. wings have it. break it out. tomas tatar drops it back. looks for tatar. breakaway. morgan rielly has the game on his stick. a piece. now it's taken back. in deep. mantha. matthews. anthony mantha, out to center. pass. larkin's alone. checked from behind by connor brown. mantha gets to it. 1:40 left in overtime. they drop it off for dekeyser.

mantha, shot down by andersen. toronto back out. connor brown at his side. auston matthews. matthews drops it back to gardiner. looki ining in front. there's matthews. they did it! auston matthews wins it in overtime!

so the toronto maple leafs get it done in overtime. after an absolutely heroic comeback by detroit. the centerpiece of it all, auston matthews. as we see in the playoffs, you get it in this environment. the handshake, as today we commemorated 100 years of the national hockey league and this game from the opening pageantry took right off. it was physical. it was grinding in the first period. anthony mantha had the only goal in the second period. then an explosion by toronto. detroit finding themselves down. fighting all the way back. just over a second left in regulation, mantha's second goal of the game tied it and then auston matthews wins it in overtime. his third game-winning goal of the season. his 20th of the campaign.

at 3:40 of overtime from jake gardiner and connor brown. >> pierre: john, every single one of these men just participated in an amazing event from the national hockey league and their fans and we talked about a coronation from time to time with different players. auston matthews has just been coronated. he is that good. >> john: a salute on both sides. a wonderful day. for a fantastic sport. pierre, we'll take a look at the winning goal by the arizona-raised auston matthews. >> pierre: and it was chances galore at both ends of the ice, but for auston matthews and the toronto maple leafs, auston matthews drop it off, quick puck on goal off the lively backboards then jared coreau just can't get to it. auston matthews does what he's supposed to, goes to the front of the net. drop it off then get to the scoring area. and look where connor brown is. taking the defensive coverage of zetterberg away. so auston matthews can jump on

that loose puck and put it to the back of the net. give it up, get it back and finish it off. there's your game winner. >> john: a great look here. unfortunate for jared coreau. he was strong in goal for most of this game. and the celebration ensues. and the hope for the toronto franchise and the heart shown by detroit. two original six teams in this beautiful environment. soccer/football facility. we rolled out the top 33 of the 100 greatest players of all-time. see the faces and the excitement in toronto. they've been aching for this and there are great days ahead for this franchise building around these young players. getting the opportunity to take auston matthews first overall in the june draft. not only make the league, but

make such a significant impact in his first year. 20-goal season already and counting. closing in on what could be a record-setting team record for auston matthews if he can catch wendel clark's great year of '85-'86, 34 goals. toronto wins it in overtime 5-4. pierre mcguire momentarily will get a member of the victorious team. and this will continue tomorrow with the bridgestone winter classic from st. louis. doc emrick, eddie olczyk, and pierre along with liam mchugh, mike milbury, keith jones, they will bring all of it to you tomorrow starting at 1:00 eastern. auston matthews with pierre mcguire. >> let's talk about overtime first. what did you see, how did you make it happen? >> i mean, not much. i think, trying to make a play in the middle, the puck balanced. just laying there. tried to get it up, over the goalie as much as i could and i

was able to sneak in there. it's a big two points for us. this setting and everything is first class, amazing. for us to get this win, it's huge. >> auston, you're down 1-0 going into the third period then you have the nuclear eruption of offense and they come back with the two late goals. how did you guys manage to keep it together on the bench? >> just stay level-headed. i mean, it's a long game. just continue to play the way we were playing. couple bad breaks for us. they scored a couple goals. gave them momentum. we didn't give up. stuck with it and were able to pull it out in overtime. >> you went number one overall for a reason. you're a game breaker and love the puck on your stick. did you think it would happen this fast in the national hockey league? >> i don't know. i believe in myself, so going into this season, i didn't put too many expectations, too many numbers or anything in my head. i wanted to go out and play, get better every day. i think it's been a pretty fun time so far. >> what this environment was like for you and all the players involved. >> it was unbelievable. like i said, it was the first -- not something many people get to experience.

especially the city of toronto, this city, it was unbelievable for us. >> thanks for doing this. >> thanks, pierre. >> johnny? >> thank you, pierre. one more time, the celebration, 3:40 of overtime. auston matthews gets it done. toronto 5, detroit 4. back with more after this. everybody knows enterprise picks you up. but can they solve all my transportation needs? spoiler alert! they can! you can buy from enterprise car sales. sold! car sharing...that's alarmingly sensible. we even rent exotics. that's good because sometimes momma

wants to drive like a mother. big trucks are kinda' my jam. you guys make me feel so special. like a princess? exactly. rent, buy or share... how can enterprise pick you up today? and we thoroughly test all our nuts for superior craveability. hey richard, check out this fresh roasted flavor. looks delicious, huh? -yeah. -richard, try to control yourself. -i can't help it. -and how about that aroma? -love that aroma! umph! -craveability, approved! -oh, can i have some now?! -sure! help yourself. -wait, what? -irresistibly planters. one more look at bmo field here in toronto. beautiful setting and the finishing touch on a great day. an overtime win by the toronto

maple leafs here in the centennial classic which kicks off a season-long celebration for the national hockey league as it commemorates 100 years of existence and a gateway to the future with auston matthews scoring the overtime winning goal and getting it done here in this beautiful environment. it was a game in which we had the legends at the beginning of this contest, top 133 were announced. seven living legends were here. wayne gretzky the great ambassador for the centennial season dropping the puck and the game was something else. so for pierre mcguire, kathryn tappen, jeremy roenick. >> brian: b brian boucher, i'm john forslund. sunday night football is football night. we'll be in detroit as aaron rodgers and the packers take on matthew stafford and the lions for the nfc north title. sunday night football. dan patrick and mike tirico host "football night in america" at 7:00 eastern only on nbc. for our entire crew, we hope you've enjoyed this.

happy new year. and so long from toronto, ontario.

nbc sports. home of the olympic games, the nhl, premier league, the chase for the nascar sprint cup. and primetime's number one show, "sunday night football," only on nbc. on this new year's night in detroit, old acquaintances reconnect. matthew stafford and the lions and aaron rodgers and the packers, afc championship on the line. ♪ work >> the surging packers have won five in a row. >> touchdown. ♪ let's get it >> and aaron rodgers, again,