John Mitchell scored the shootout winner for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night in a 5-4 pre-season win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Viktor Stalberg had two goals and added an assist for Toronto, with Nazem Kadri and Mikhail Grabovski also scoring in Detroit.

Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson was heartened by the play of the first-year aspirants. In addition to Stalberg and Kadri, Christian Hanson and Tyler Bozak notched assists.

The coach also singled out Carl Gunnarsson for impressive play.

"It gives you hope that the cupboard's not bare," said Wilson. "We've got some young guys who've probably, because I've given them opportunities, have looked better than some of our veterans.

"Going forward, after a little bit of seasoning, they can only make our team better."

Toronto will play two more pre-season games, starting with a Saturday night home game against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 6:30 p.m. ET).

Vesa Toskala made 29 saves and allowed just one goal in five Detroit shootout chances, taking over in the second after rookie Jonas Gustavsson made his Maple Leafs debut in the first.

Gustavsson stopped all seven shots he faced. The Swede's first game action came after he had a non-invasive heart procedure this month in which doctors insert small wires into a blood vessel in the groin area and send them up into the heart.

Chris Osgood went the distance and stopped 27 shots for Detroit, which got two goals from both Niklas Kronwall and Johan Franzen.

Stalberg put the Maple Leafs up by a pair after one period. The big Swedish forward snapped a shot from the right circle past Osgood, and with the goalie floundering during a bout of Toronto pressure later in the period, he outfought Brett Lebda and went to the side of the net to re-direct Lee Stempniak's attempt.

Stalberg assisted early in the third when Kadri's shot appeared to go off a Detroit defender and trickled past Osgood.

The Wings roared back with four goals in an 18-minute span.

Kronwall jumped into the rush to put home a rebound after Todd Bertuzzi drove the net late in the second, and then got credit when his shot from the point early in the third eluded a screened Toskala.

Franzen, who assisted on the goal, then scored two within 14 seconds.

The first came after Kadri took an ill-advised penalty. Pavel Datsyuk got the first of his two assists, sending a cross-ice pass to Franzen to bury at the 11:55 mark of the third.

Franzen struck quickly after the faceoff, skating to the right circle and lifting a shot over Toskala, who went down early on the play.

"We fell apart for a couple of minutes in the third," said Stalberg. "A few mistakes, which is easy to do against the Red Wings when they're pressuring."

The Leafs appeared weary but they sent the game into overtime with 71 seconds left, when Grabovski one-timed a puck past Osgood.

Nikolai Kulemin drew one of the assists and scored in the shootout before Mitchell found the mark. Dan Cleary had Detroit's only successful attempt.

With files from The Associated Press