In Toronto, the Maple leafs got a late goal from Timothy Liljegren to tie their game with the New York Rangers, 2-2, on Wednesday night.
The goal forced extra time.
“I think I feel a little bit more comfortable going down [in the zone] now,” said Liljegren, a defenseman. “Especially that time in the game, we were down one goal and needed a goal, so try to get some more offense. In that period of time, if it’s 2-2 maybe stay back a little bit, but I feel more confident in those areas.”
In the extra session, Mitchell Marner scored with just 19 seconds gone in the for the 3-2 win.
“Timmy kind of took it up the ice, drew people towards him, dropped it back to me and I saw I had a lot of time and space,” Marner said. “I tried to come over the blue line and decide what I was going to do, try to slow the play down and see if anything was going to open up, and I saw I had my own little lane and tried to take it.”
Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves in the Maple Leafs win.
“It was a nice game, a great battle with [Shesterkin],” Samsonov said. “It was a little bit bigger game for me than normal against Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin (Islanders) and Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets, 4-1 win Jan. 19) too. Three good goalies. I’m happy we won; [it was a] hard game. Mitch [did] an excellent job in overtime, so [it’s] nice.”
Toronto improved to 30-11-8.
“We believe in him and have high expectations, but nobody expects anybody to have a record like that. It’s quite remarkable,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It speaks a lot to his play and our team’s play just the same, but this was another tough game for him. The margin for error was pretty thin, and you’ve got an elite goaltender and a countryman of his down at the other end [in Shesterkin] — not unlike he did against the Islanders the other night — and I thought it both cases, he stood his ground and gave us [an] opportunity to win the game.”
Filip Chytil hit for a double in the middle frame for New York.
His first came off an offensive zone face-off from the left circle. He rotated his hand to a shooting position as the puck dropped to the ice and wristed it past Samsonov to tie the game, 1-1.
The Rangers dropped to 26-14-8, they are 3-0-3 in their last six roadies.
“They’re a really good team,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “They’re really talented and when they’re losing they’re going to push, so they made a good play and they attacked and they got a goal. But no, I liked the game. I thought we played well in a tough building with a real good team against us. … I want the two points, but we’ll take the one and run.”
Pontus Holmberg scored early in the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.
Chytil’s second goal came after the Maple Leafs were unable to clear their zone. Alexis Lafreniere eventually controlled the puck and fed a pass to Kaapo Kakko who found Chytil open at the right circle for the quick shot and a 2-1 lead to New York.
“I thought tonight was a really good effort,” Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey said. “Maybe if we win the game 2-1, we are applauding our 60-minute effort and our defensive game. But in overtime, anything can happen.
“But for the most part, I thought our intensity and our checking was there. I’m not saying we didn’t give them anything, but we held their top guys pretty much in check and overall, it was a hard-fought game tonight. Just a good hockey game so if we come out with two points, then we are talking about that as a really good measuring stick game.”
Igor Shesterkin made 32 saves in the Rangers loss.
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