VANCOUVER — Sure, it required a date with the league’s 32nd-ranked team and 65 minutes plus a shootout, but the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ six-game losing streak has come to an end.

“We’re on a one-game winning streak, so we’ll think about that,” Max Domi said Saturday at Rogers Arena, where celebratory music once again blasts from the visitors’ quarters.

What could well have shaped up to be a one-anthem shame — a clash between the NHL’s worst team and its most disappointing — turned into a pretty fun night at the barn.

When it comes to rallying all the way into a playoff berth, the struggling Leafs may have better odds of dressing more Petterssons than the Canucks.

But considering the state of these organizations, both positioned to be trading by deadline, Toronto’s annual 4 p.m. local in Vancouver was lively on and off the sheet.

The lottery-bound Canucks put forth an honest effort, the Leafs dug deep till the end of their 3-2 nailbiter, and every goal was rejoiced in by a crowd half-filled with Leafs supporters.

“It’s different, for sure, in Canada,” said Nicolas Roy, formerly of Vegas. “I feel like today, there was obviously a lot. In Winnipeg a couple weeks ago, there was a lot. 

“Not all the teams have this luxury. So, it’s fun to be part of it, for sure.”

Fun isn’t a word heard around the Maple Leafs’ postgame availabilities much these days, and rediscovering that feeling required outshooting the Canucks 41-30 and goaltender Joseph Woll making a couple 10-bellers late.

Nothing comes easy, even the easy ones.

“It’s a good feeling in there right now, after losing six in a row. It’s tough,” coach Craig Berube said. “But they worked their way out of it tonight, in my opinion. Like, they weren’t gonna be denied.”

Despite losing minute-munching Morgan Rielly mid-game to an upper-body injury (the defenceman will undergo further evaluation Sunday), Toronto tilted the ice something fierce in the third period, outshooting the home side 18-5.

Jake McCabe (27:40) and ex-Canuck Oliver Ekman-Larsson (28:10) picked up the load.

“We talked before going in there,” Berube said. “Look, it’s gotta be our best period of the year. It was pretty close. I mean, we had the puck the whole period. Couldn’t find the back of the net.”

And a steady bounce-back performance by Joseph Woll — including what he described as “a bit of a heart attack” instinctual toe stop on Conor Garland in OT — ended the goaltender’s personal career-worst five-game skid.

“Glad I saved it,” Woll said.

All the Leafs’ smiles curled with relief.

“Yeah, we got it done,” chuckled Craig Berube, forehead stitches now removed. “It took a bit.”

A bit of time. A lot of effort.

“Emptied the tank tonight,” Domi said.

So, just how badly did the Maple Leafs need this win?

“Well,” Matthews said, “I think I could’ve said that a couple games ago.”

• Nylander says his groin injury never had him worried about missing the Olympics.

“That experience is going to be incredible,” Nylander says. “Playing with Team Sweden and playing against the best players in the world at an Olympics is something that doesn’t happen too often. And it’ll be a first for me, so I’m going to be very excited for it.”

Nylander, who tops all countrymen with 1.3 points per game, will be the face of Team Sweden.

“I’m fine with it, and I’m happy to be in that position for sure,” he says. And there’s only one shade of medal that’ll suffice.

“Going there for the mindset to be happy with the silver or bronze, I mean, why are you going there?”

• With Nylander returning, Easton Cowan was healthy scratched.

The rookie hasn’t scored in nine games. He’s a dash-4 over that span, and Berube believes he was due a reset.

“He’s lost a bit of his swagger, and that’s a big part of his game. I’m not seeing that right now in his game. Maybe worried about making mistakes,” Berube said. 

As a London Knights alum, Cowan isn’t used to losing. Berube believes losing skids like the one that smacked Toronto in January have a greater effect on young players.

• Saturday signalled the one-year anniversary of the J.T. Miller trade.

Since that headline-snatching deal, the Canucks have the NHL’s worst record (33-44-10). The Rangers own the fifth-worst (37-42-9). 

(P.S. Elias Pettersson did not register a shot Saturday. Either of them.)

• Toronto’s win snuffs out a run of eight consecutive home victories by the Canucks over the Leafs.

• Berube did something he’d never done in his history of coaching. He called a timeout in overtime before Auston Matthews took his penalty shot.

Just so the man could catch his breath.

“He needed it,” Berube said.

“He could sense I was pretty gassed,” Matthews said. “I mean, I was out there for a couple minutes, and then that rush down took a lot of me.

Matthews tried to end the game by going high glove on a backhand deke, but goalie Nikita Tolopilo got a piece.

The captain saw space glove side, though, so he went back to the well in the shootout.

“Luckily, I got that second opportunity,” Matthews said. “I didn’t want to make that mistake twice, so I just stuck to it again and found that opening there.”