In Manhattan, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored just six seconds apart on Wednesday night to snap a 1-1 first period tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs en route to a 5-3 win.
Zibanejad scored a face off win by Kreider and snapped the puck home for a 2-1 lead and then Kreider took the center ice off pass from Pavel Buchnevich and blew past the Leafs defense for a 3-1 lead.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and three points for the Rangers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“He’s (Kreider) a huge part of our team, and a leader,” Zibanejad said. “You can watch those two games, with him and without him, [and see] how big of a difference he makes.”
Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves to get the win.
“The second goal, it’s a bang-bang play off a face-off, we’ll give them that one,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “But then to not be alive and ready right off the drop of the next one, that’s just making life real hard on your goalie. We don’t like that.”
“It was a great win for us,” Rangers coach David Quinn said.
Auston Matthews struck twice in the loss.
“We continue to have these lulls throughout the game where we’re just not playing our best, and the chances we’re giving up, just too many 2-on-1s, odd-man rushes,” Matthews said. “They were a bit egregious. That’s where we’re at.”
John Tavares posted the Maple Leafs to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“We did get a good start, set us up really well … but it’s very disappointing that we weren’t able to build upon that,” Keefe said. “Instead, we gave it back, dug ourselves a hole that we just weren’t able to get out of.”
Filip Chytil replied to the Tavares goal with a nifty tap in off a cross slot pass from Tony DeAngelo.
“The way we responded to their goals was really good from our side,” Zibanejad said. “It’s easy to get down on yourself when they score. They’re really good at riding on their momentum, and I thought we did a good job killing it and creating our own.”
Buchnevich had a goal and three points on the night.
“Kreider coming back from a scary incident and missing one game, I give him a lot of credit for stepping in and picking up really where he left off,” Quinn said. “He didn’t have any rust, no apprehension on his part. I thought Buchnevich was outstanding tonight too. He really bounced back from a tough night. And Mika was really good.”
Greg McKegg sealed the win with an empty net goal
[WATCH:Â All Maple Leafs vs. Rangers highlights]
Michael Hutchinson made 30 saves in the loss.
“We just need to put together a full 60 minutes,” Matthews said. “I thought a couple games back we did a lot of good things, played really well. Then the other night against Florida, 45-50 minutes of really good hockey, but just the chances we give up when we’re not dominating games, they’re just too much and the other teams are capitalizing on them.”
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