New York Rangers vs Toronto Maple Leafs: A rock solid 5-3 win

The New York Rangers sent a message in their 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night.  They aren’t going to be a pushover no matter what happens this season and they are getting closer to being a team to be reckoned with.

The Maple Leafs came to Madison Square Garden out of a playoff spot and were facing a New York Rangers team that had a tough loss to a good team on Monday night.  The Leafs have one of the top offenses in the NHL and the Rangers did a solid job of shutting them down.  They bent, but they didn’t break and finished with a very satisfying 5-3 win.

It was a night of messages.  Chris Kreider told the NHL that he is fine after suffering a head/neck injury and enhanced his trade deadline value even more.   Pavel Buchnevich told David Quinn that he knew he had to step up after a lousy effort on Monday and he did in spades.   Ryan Strome told Quinn that he knew what he had to do to stay paired with Artemi Panarin.   Jacob Trouba told the opposition that he won’t take a dirty check without fighting back.  And Igor Shesterkin told the Rangers that they are right in their belief that he is the goalie of the future.

The reunited ZIbanejad line was flying all night and dominated when they were on the ice, scoring two goals in six seconds in the process. Kreider showed no ill effects of this head shot he took two games ago.  There had been talk of dropping Buchnevich down in the lineup after he had only two shifts in the third period on Monday.  He responded with a three point night.

Filip Chytil replaced Ryan Strome for a handful of shifts in the first period, but in a matter of minutes, Strome was back with Panarin.  Quinn explained that he was sending a message to Strome that he had to play better and it took only a couple shifts for him to prove that he had learned a lesson.

Jacob Trouba was reunited with Brady Skjei and he had another strong game and finished the night beating the crap out of Zack Hyman for throwing a dangerous cross check as the game ended.

The surprise starter, Igor Shesterkin, had another superlative game.  He had 27 saves as the Maple Leafs swarmed all night and came up big when he had to.  He might have had a chance on one of the three goals and he had a couple big stops early in the game.  Shesterkin is now 4-1 in his five starts and if Quinn is true to his word about staying with a hot goalie, we should be seeing a lot of Shesterkin in this three goalie rotation.

Perhaps the best of all was that the Rangers counterpunched whenever the Maple Leafs scored and in the third period they played a strong defensive game, not allowing the Leafs many opportunities until a later power play goal.  In the first 15:40 of the third period, the Rangers allowed only four shots on goal while blocking six shots.

The game

The game got off to a tough start in the first period when John Tavares scored 7:36 into the match. It was a quick breakout for the Maple Leafs and Tavares had a wide open shot off a rebound of a William Nylander shot.

The Rangers answered right back with Filip Chytil knotting the score just 1:14 after Tavares scored.

.

Anthony DeAngelo made the goal when he accepted the puck at the blue line, skated deep into the zone and made a perfect pass to a wide open Chytil who tapped it into the open net.

Let in the period it was magic time as

Mika Zibanejad

and Chris Kreider scored goals within six seconds of each other.

The first goal was a set play with Chris Kreider winning the faceoff and and feeding Zibanajed who lasered it past Michael Hutchinson.   The second goal was off a center ice faceoff win by Zibanejad who fed a streaking Kreider who undressed the Leafs’ goalie and put a backhand into an open net.

The Maple Leafs had to be wondering what was going on as the period ended with the Blueshirts up 3-1.

The second period was mostly scoreless, but at times it felt like the ice as tilted in Toronto’s favor.  They finally got on board when Auston Matthews scored with just over three minutes left in the period.  It was the kid line on the ice and they let Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson win a puck battle behind the net and Johnsson fed a wide open Matthews who fired a backhand by Shesterkin.  It was the speed of Matthews’ shot that fooled the Ranger goalie.  He was still looking behind him when the Leaf received the puck and shot the puck.

Once again, the Rangers answered right back with Pavel Buchnevich putting the Blueshirts up by two goals again.

It was a bang bang play with Kreider winning the board battle and feeding Zibanejad who made a touch pass to Buchnevich who fired between Hutchinson’s legs.  It was huge goal for the Rangers as they came out of a period that they had been dominated with the same two goal lead.

They did need some heroics from Shesterkin who stopped a point black Zack Hyman shot with a pad save.

The third period was rock solid for the Blueshirts.  They kept the Maple Leafs on the perimeter and blocked more shots than got through to Shesterkin.  When Greg McKegg was called for a hooking penalty with a little over four minutes left in the game, the Maple Leafs went to work and Matthews put his 39th goal in the net off a fantastic passing play.

The Leafs pulled their goalie, but never were able to get set up in the Rangers’ zone and that led to a two on one breakout with the net empty.  Buchnevich passed to McKegg who had an easy goal.

As this was happening, Jacob Trouba and Zach Hyman were exchanging punches after a Hyman cross check.  The referees reviewed the goal to see if the whistle had blown, but Trouba had waited until he knew McKegg had the open net before beginning his bashing of Hyman.

With the two goal lead restored it was time to see if they could get Shesterkin the puck for another try at a goal, but he thought better of it and kept the puck on the boards as time ran out.

It was a decisive win and the opposite of what happened in December when the Leafs scored two third period goals to send the game to overtime with the Rangers eventually winning.

Notes on the game

Greg McKegg’s goal was his first since November 6, a span of 33 games.

The Rangers were defensive monsters this game.  They outhit the Leafs 29-12, had 21 blocked shots to Toronto’s eight, and had 13 takeaways compared to Toronto’s six.

The Rangers won the season series from Toronto 2-1.  It’s the second straight season they have done that.

David Quinn wanted the team to focus on even strength play and they scored all of their goals that way, unsuccessful in their two power plays.

The Rangers ended up outshooting the Maple Leafs 35-30 though the Leafs had 66 shot attempts to the 54 for the Blueshirts.

The win improved the Rangers’ record against the Atlantic Division to 9-7-2.  They are 19-12-2 against teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers have 56 points and are nine points behind the Flyers for the final wild card spot, though they have one game in hand.