The New York Rangers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 despite being outshot 56-30. Alexandar Georgiev was simply spectacular in goal.
The New York Rangers were definitely the underdogs going into this game, but somehow pulled off a victory despite a dominating offensive display by the Maple Leafs who did everything but put the puck in the net. It was a fabulous performance by Alexandar Georgiev who was celebrating his 23rd birthday. In the spirit of the Grammys, we will be naming our stars the Grammys of the game but first here is a breakdown of the game period by period.
First period
The first period got off to a fast start as the Rangers stunned the Maple Leafs by scoring only 28 seconds into the game. Mika Zibanejad put in a rebound on assists from Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider. It was the fastest goal at the start of a game by the Rangers this season.
Well that didn't take long... pic.twitter.com/b8kbHNb4dd
— NBC Sports Hockey (@NBCSportsHockey) February 11, 2019
At 10:35, the Maple Leafs then responded with an unassisted goal by Kasperi Kapanen, with a snipe of a shot off the left post. It came after a ghastly giveaway by Tony DeAngelo who made a blind pass at the offensive zone blue that was intercepted by Kapanen who had a breakway.
Less than four minutes later, the Rangers took the lead with a goal from Jimmy Vesey on a beautiful pass from Kreider who had just left the penalty box. Kreider received the pass from Ryan Strome and got the puck to Vesey who hit the top corner to beat Garret Sparks.
What a pass! What a finish! #NYR pic.twitter.com/dhTczN1shf
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 11, 2019
The period ended with the Rangers on top 2-1, but outshot by the Maple Leafs 22-14. The Leafs had an incredible 16 shots on two power plays and Georgiev singlehandedly kept the Rangers in the game. The Rangers actually had a good first period when not killing penalties with an even strength Corsi of 58%.
Second Period
In an uneventful second period, the most excitement came from a Neal Pionk fight with Zach Hyman, where he got rag dolled. Georgiev had another great period as the Rangers were outshot 17-9. They again had to kill off two penalties and Toronto had seven shots on their two power plays. The Blueshirts did a good job of keeping Toronto on the perimeter and Georgiev had a good look at most of the shots.