DETROIT — There was a moment Sunday night where it looked the like the Detroit Red Wings could be without Simon Edvinsson for the rest of their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It was just after midway through the second period, and Edvinsson was being helped off the ice — and moving gingerly — after he had blocked an Auston Matthews one-timer off the side of his knee. He headed down the tunnel, and for a player who has become one of the Red Wings’ most relied-upon defenders, logging 22 minutes a night, it was a daunting thought.

Fortunately for the Red Wings, it lasted all of two minutes and 10 seconds before Edvinsson was miraculously back on the ice again. And while he wasn’t immediately looking particularly comfortable out there, he gutted through it and logged a team-high 25:57 for the Red Wings, and then delivered the overtime game-winning goal in a 3-2 win over Toronto.

“He rose from the dead,” Detroit forward Mason Appleton said, “and came back and scored an unbelievable goal.”

That goal saw Edvinsson jump on a fluttering puck that Maple Leafs goaltender Dennis Hildeby had tried to push forward to Matthews in three-on-three overtime, go wide around Matias Maccelli, then cut back across the middle and through the goal mouth to beat Hildeby for his fifth goal of the season.

It was the highest-profile moment — and game — of the season for Edvinsson, who in his second full season with the Red Wings is starting to reach the next level of his vast potential.

And the funny thing is, it may not have even been the most impressive moment of his night.

Right there with it, at the very least, was the one he made while down on the ice in pain after the blocked shot, trapped on the ice with Toronto on the power play in a one-goal game. With Matthews, one of the league’s most dangerous goal scorers (even in a down year) out there and hunting with Edvinsson down, the 6-foot-6 defender crawled back into the lane and reached out with his stick to block another attempt from Matthews.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing there for a while,” Edvinsson said. “But yeah, I felt something touch my stick, and it was the puck, and then I was just trying to lay on the puck for a while there. So it was a lot happening that shift.”

After about 21 seconds of a virtual five-on-three with Edvinsson down, the Red Wings finally got the puck cleared and a whistle. Edvinsson had to be helped off the ice by Detroit captain Dylan Larkin and a team trainer after being hit in the side of the knee, and later said he “couldn’t feel my foot or my (leg) from the knee and down.”

But Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said trainers quickly came back out and gave him a quick explanation — the puck had hit a pocket of nerves that left Edvinsson numb, similar to a funny bone, and he just needed to get the feeling back. After what Edvinsson described as “some magical stuff from the trainers,” he came back to the bench and got back to the ice much quicker than his departure would have suggested.