Rangers chase Maple Leafs all night but can’t catch them in disappointing 3-2 loss
The New York Rangers stepped up in class on Friday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs came to Madison Square Garden. They weren’t quite up to the challenge.
After going 2-1-0 despite playing poorly against the three weakest teams in the Eastern Conference, the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders, the Rangers outshot the Maple Leafs 35-17 and outplayed them for long stretches. But they never led, and Matthew Knies’ goal at 6:21 of the third period put the Maple Leafs ahead to stay in a 3-2 victory that moved them into first place in the Atlantic Division.
It was a damaging loss for the Rangers, who remained in a three-way tie for ninth place in the Eastern Conference after failing for the fifth straight time to win three in a row, something they haven’t done since Nov. 14-19. They’re still four points behind the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, who own the two wild-card berths entering their NHL Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. All three teams have played 59 games.
New York was playing catch-up all night after allowing a power-play goal by Oliver Ekman-Larsson 1:47 into the game. Mika Zibanejad tied it with less than six minutes remaining in the period, but Toronto went ahead again 51 seconds into the second period on William Nylander’s unassisted goal.
Zibanejad set up Will Cuylle’s game-tying short-handed goal 3:47 into the third period. But Toronto went ahead to stay just 2:34 later on Knies’ 22nd goal, then survived a barrage of shots down the stretch by the Rangers.
“When they got a look in the third period, they buried it,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “We couldn’t find the third one.”
Igor Shesterkin, coming off back-to-back brilliant efforts in the wins at Pittsburgh and the Islanders, was just OK against Toronto. He allowed three goals on just 17 shots, matching the fewest the Rangers have allowed this season. He was outplayed by Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz, who finished with 33 saves to help the Maple Leafs win their fourth in a row and move past the Florida Panthers into first place in the Atlantic Division.
“I felt we deserved a better fate,” Cuylle said.
The Rangers dominated play for most of the night without their best defenseman, Adam Fox, who’s on injured reserve after sustaining an upper-body injury Tuesday in a 5-1 win against the Islanders. However, defenseman K’Andre Miller (lower-body injury sustained vs. Isles) and center J.T. Miller (illness) each dressed and took a regular shift.
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Toronto Maple Leafs 3 – New York Rangers 2
The Rangers got off to the kind of start that gives coaches nightmares.
Auston Matthews misfired on a wide-open shot from the slot six seconds after the opening face-off, but drew a tripping penalty on Zibanejad 12 seconds later.
Toronto’s five-forward first power-play unit did nothing, but the second unit wasted no time putting the Maple Leafs in front. Max Domi controlled the puck in the left circle and floated a pass that landed right on the stick of Ekman-Larsson near the top of the right circle. The veteran defenseman rocketed a shot off the near post and into the net at 1:47 to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
The Rangers tightened up after that, controlling play and holding Toronto without a shot on goal for more than eight minutes before Shesterkin had to make a big stop on Mitch Marner in the crease. New York nearly tied it at 10:41 by using the same strategy that was so effective in the 5-1 road win against the New York Islanders on Tuesday – going to the net and looking for tips and rebounds. Vincent Trocheck got a piece of Urho Vaakanainen’s shot from the left point, but the tip went just wide.
Zibanejad atoned for his penalty when he did tie the game at 13:08, again using the go-to-the-net strategy. J.T. Miller had a shot blocked, but the puck came to Will Borgen, who fired from the top of the right circle. Zibanejad got a stick on the puck and deflected it past Stolarz for his 13th goal of the season, extending his point streak to five games.
“It was a great heads-up play by ‘Borgs,’” Zibanejad told MSG Networks during the first intermission.
The Rangers dominated play for the rest of the period but couldn’t get another puck past Stolarz before time ran out, leaving the score tied 1-1 despite New York’s 14-5 lead in shots on goal, 29-11 advantage in attempts and, according to Natural Stat trick, a 9-3 edge in high-danger scoring chances.
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Toronto struck for another early goal to begin the second period after a bad line change enabled Nylander to go in alone on Shesterkin. Though Vaakanainen disrupted the shot and the puck trickled wide, Nylander got to it first and slid the puck back into the crease, where Shesterkin inadvertently knocked it into his own net at the 51-second mark. The original call of no goal was quickly overturned by video review, leaving Toronto ahead 2-1.
New York killed off Ryan Lindgren’s interference penalty at 1:34 and nearly tied it at 6:20 when Trocheck made a terrific move to sneak through the defense and get off a quick shot. Stolarz was surprised but made the save and covered.
The Rangers got their first power play at 13:10 when Bobby McMann was called for holding Braden Schneider just seconds after Schneider helped break up his dash to the net. The Rangers did little offensively until they were called for too many men at 14:54.
Jonny Brodzinski, coming off the first two-goal game of his career against the Islanders, nearly tied it with 50 seconds left. His rip from the right of the slot beat Stolarz cleanly but hit the crossbar.
John Tavares’ interference penalty with 3.1 seconds left gave the Rangers their second power play, and J.T. Miller forced Stolarz to make a big save just before the buzzer went off, keeping the score 2-1 through 40 minutes.
The Rangers didn’t generate much during the power play, then gave the Maple Leafs their fourth man advantage when Sam Carrick was called for cross-checking. But instead of falling behind by two goals, the Rangers tied it on Cuylle’s short-handed goal.
Cuylle started the play by picking off a pass by Nicholas Robertson in the Rangers zone and broke out 2-on-1 with Zibanejad. They played give-and-go, with Cuylle taking Zibanejad’s feed and beating Stolarz with a terrific backhand deke to make it 2-2.
Trocheck nearly put the Rangers ahead less than 20 seconds later when he beat Stolarz but rang a shot off the post.
Knies then put Toronto ahead for the third time by converting a pass from Matthews after a terrific play by Marner, who jumped up to knock down a rim-around by Shesterkin behind the net. This time, the Rangers couldn’t find the equalizer.
The Rangers have a rare Saturday off before playing back-to-back home games against the Nashville Predators on Sunday and the Islanders on Monday.
Trocheck said the Rangers can’t dwell on the disappointment of losing a game in which they vastly outplayed a superior opponent.
“You’re disappointed,” he said, “but every game this late in the season, you have to look at it, take what you can, learn from it and then move on to the next game. You can’t really focus on it too long.”
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