In Toronto, the visiting New York Rangers exacted some level of revenge on Tuesday in a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs.
One week earlier, the Rangers had been embarrassed on their home ice, 7-3 by Toronto.
“We had it circled and we thought we owed them one,” the Rangers’ Braden Schneider said. “It was a game we wanted to get back at them for, and I thought we did just that.”
Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves in the win.
The Rangers improved to 22-7-1.
After a scoreless opening stanza, the Rangers took a 1-0 lead at 6:11 of the middle frame.
Blake Wheeler took a shot from the right side, with the puck deflecting off Mika Zibanejad’s skate and into the net for the lead.
Auston Matthews,who was the lone striker for the Maple Leafs, scored both goals. His first came at 7:32 of the second period to tie the game, 1-1.
Alexis Lafreniere then scored midway trough the second, off a power play, on a wrist shot shot from the left boards
“It was a shot, but it was a pretty lucky goal,” Lafreniere said. “It went off something, I don’t know, maybe a defenseman, but lucky, but good to see it go in.
“Playing with [Panarin] and [Vincent] Trocheck, you’re going to get good looks, for sure, because they’re such good playmakers, so it was good to see one go in, and hopefully keep producing.”
It was his first goal in 13 games.
In the third period, Matthews hit for his double with 76 seconds gone in the period to tie the game, 2-2, and give some life to the Maple Leafs.
Schneider then displayed a power move down the right side and skated in on net for a wrist shot down low and 3-2 lead to New York.
“I saw a bit of ice to skate, and Gustafsson gave me a good pass,” Schneider said. “I think there might have been a little bit of a pick (at the blue line) or something, I don’t know what happened, but some ice opened up and I had some speed going through and I just tried to put it on net, and fortunately enough it went in.”
From there it was all Rangers who shut down the Leafs offense and kept the pressure on in the offensive zone.
“I didn’t like the way we started the third period, not just the goal, but we just needed to press more and have a little more energy inside of our game,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “The resolve after that, after they tied it up, I thought we got going in the right direction and played a pretty sharp period from there.”
Artemi Panarin hot off the power play at 15:08 of the third for a 4-2 lead to the Rangers.
Zibanejad added an empty-net marker 16:47 for the 5-2 final count.
The Maple Leafs dropped to 16-7-6.
“They had three goals that just ping-ponged their way in, so unfortunate breaks there,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “We didn’t get a chance to see our power play tonight, and I thought we created some good looks and had some opportunities. I think their goalie was seeing it really well, and we probably could have done a little better job of trying to find second and thirds and make it a little more difficult for him to challenge and see pucks cleanly.”
Yeah, that’s the reason the Maple Leafs lost.
“We played a pretty good game in a lot of different areas,” Matthews said. “Three goals with three fluky bounces, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I thought we hung in there for the most part.
“They’re just a really deep team and they’ve got four lines that can all skate and make plays and make it hard on you, so it’s always a good test playing these guys. They’ve got great goaltending and just a deep team, so with the way the game went last week against them, you knew they were going to be coming out here to play.”
Use CodePHN15 Rangers waited a week to get back at Maple Leafs
Martin Jones made 31 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.