In Toronto, the Maple Leafs were hoping to keep pace with the Boston Bruins for second place in the Atlantic Division but lost to the New York Rangers in overtime, 2-1.
Ryan Strome scored at 1:48 of the extra session to finish a solid game from the Rangers.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. “I didn’t think we got in our own way. Obviously it was a disappointing way to end. I didn’t think we were as good tonight as we had been in the last two games, but we still had lots of opportunities.”
The Leafs dropped to 44-25-6 and trail the Bruins by seven points.
“Similar I think to the last time we played these guys, their goalie just has our number somehow,” Auston Matthews said. “He made some unbelievable saves tonight and kept them in it and then it comes down to one play in overtime to get the extra point. It’s obviously frustrating. We want that extra point.”
The Rangers were eliminated from the playoff chase, officially, when the Montreal Canadiens won over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
“We found a way to win,” Strome said. “We have found ways to lose in the last couple weeks, but it was good to get one tonight. That’s a good hockey team over there. We seem to play the good teams in this League real well, but it was fun to get two points and now enjoy the plane ride home. We’ve worked really hard the last two weeks so it’s nice to get rewarded.”
Alexandar Georgiev, who may be the goalie in waiting in Manhattan, made 44 saves to get the win.
“I know that they’re a really tough team to play, and I know that I have to bring my best game to be able to beat those guys because I have huge respect for those guys obviously,” Georgiev said.
Earlier in the season, Georgiev stopped 55 of 56 shots from the Leafs.
“Honestly, it’s unbelievable,” Boo Nieves said. “He made some saves where we were kind of sitting on the bench kind of feeling deflated but it got all the guys going, it got everybody up and got our energy going. He was definitely the backbone of our team tonight.”
Pavel Buchnevich scored early in the third period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Zach Hyman knotted the game up near the mid way point of the final frame.
“I thought all in all we played a pretty solid game,” Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews said. “There were times where we got a bit loose, but once we got back to playing and taking care of things, utilizing our speed and getting in behind them, there were points in the game where it just seemed like we had the puck the whole time. There’s a lot of good things we can take away from this game.”
[WATCH: All Rangers vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Frederik Andersen made 26 saves in the loss.
“I thought we played well. I thought we were playing really well in the first two periods especially making it hard on them. Unfortunately we just couldn’t score,” Andersen said.
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