Recap: Rangers Get Their Revenge, 5-2 Win Over Toronto

Another night of Original Six hockey as the New York Rangers looked for a revenge game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The two teams saw each other just last week as the Maple Leafs got off to a dominant start in what ended up being a 7-3 loss for the Blueshirts. Since then, the Rangers have picked up a pair of wins on their weekend back-to-back against the Ducks and Bruins while the Leafs lost in overtime to the Blue Jackets and were coming off a 7-0 blowout win to their former GM’s new team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Rangers would not only look to get off to a better start in this one, but would require a much stronger defensive game to shut down the Leafs red hot offense.

1st Period:

Hometown kid Will Cuylle had the first big opportunity of the night for the Rangers as the puck ended up right on his stick all alone in front of Martin Jones and the Leafs net. That play  really sparked the Rangers offense as they were right back at it with a couple of quality chances in the offensive zone. It was a fairly even first period in terms of all around play but the Rangers certainly had the edge in possession and shots on goal as the opening period ended with them ahead in both counts. Up 12-6 in shots on goal and winning 7 of 10 face-offs.

It was also a particularly physical start to the game as the Rangers out-hit the Leafs 15-6 throughout the first with Cuylle contributing to at least three of those as he was off to a great start in this one. Braden Schneider was another noticeable player for the Rangers who came up with a couple of those hits as well as a handful of scoring opportunities. While it was a physical period, there weren’t any penalties to either team. While it was a bit of an uneventful start, good hockey was played by both teams and there was plenty of room for things to open up.

2nd Period:

The pace of this one picked right up where it left off although it was the Leafs building momentum off a strong first shift or two. As play settled down again it was lots of back and forth with each team seeing chances at either end of the ice. Just a couple minutes out from the game’s midway point, Blake Wheeler threw the puck over to the net following a nice zone entry by Mika Zibanejad. The shot took a couple pinball-like bounces in front of the net and ended up going off Zibanejad and into the back of the net to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.

The lead wouldn’t last too long however as the Leafs took advantage of a sloppy transition play by the Rangers. Morgan Rielly entered the zone with good speed and fed a pass over to Auston Matthews in the slot who sent the puck right to the back of the net to make it a 1-1 game.

Right after the Leafs goal, William Lagesson was called for holding which sent the Rangers to their first power play of the night. That top unit went to work but after a couple of successful clears from the Leafs penalty killers, the second unit took to the ice. After immediately getting a couple of good chances, Alexis Lafrenière let a shot go that took a bounce off of Morgan Rielly to find the back of the net to regain the Rangers lead, 2-1.

Alexis Lafrenière picked up a huge goal as he snapped a twelve game scoreless drought and contributed to a pretty impressive overall stat on the team’s power play success as of late.

With close to five minutes to go in the period, the Leafs had a couple of strong chances to tie the game back up but a tremendous defensive play by K’Andre Miller breaking up a 2-on-1 and a couple big saves from Igor Shesterkin kept the game at 2-1 in favor of New York. Shesterkin wasn’t overly tested in the opening period but his workload definitely picked up as the game went on, especially in the final five minutes or so in the second.

The Leafs would end up having the advantage at the end of two as they out-shot the Rangers 17-14 in the second period. The game opened up loads more as both team’s put themselves on the scoreboard with the Rangers finding the edge on the lone power play attempt of the game up to this point. With both teams being strong third period team’s, the game was still up for grabs

3rd Period:

The Leafs again wasted no time getting after it as Tyler Bertuzzi immediately had a grade-A scoring chance on a partial breakaway. Shesterkin turned away the shot but the Leafs held possession and soon enough, Auston Matthews let an absolute rip of a wrist shot go off the post and in to tie the game up 2-2.

It looked as though it was going to be all Toronto from that moment on however slowly but surely, the Rangers offense was getting involved once again. The Rangers had a couple of good chances that required solid saves from Martin Jones that included a couple hard shots from Jonny Brodzinski who had five shots on goal throughout the evening on top of his assist on the Lafrenière goal.

As we approached the midway point of the third, Braden Schneider, who was having just an outstanding all around performance tonight, took the puck into the Leafs zone flying past all of the opposing players. As Jones expected him to cut across to the other side of the crease, Schneider snuck the puck past him on a low shot to regain the Rangers lead, 3-2.

Jimmy Vesey had the chance to extend the Rangers lead after forcing a turnover for a partial breakaway but Jones turned the shot away no problem. As the Leafs went the other way with it, Barclay Goodrow laid out to block a hard shot in the slot for quite the gutsy effort. Play continued and the Rangers would head back to the power play with just over five minutes to go in the game as David Kämpf was sent off for tripping Ryan Lindgren.

While the top unit was in the midst of a change, Artemiy Panarin took a visit over to Zibanejad’s office and as Erik Gustafsson and Vincent Trocheck worked the puck around, Panarin wound up and let a shot go that flew past Jones to make it a 4-2 game.

Toronto pulled the goalie for the extra skater with plenty of time remaining which was quickly shut down by Mika Zibanejad who picked up the puck at his own blue line and put it away at center to extend the lead 5-2. With three minutes still left in regulation, any hopes for a Toronto comeback were pretty much killed by the empty netter and the Rangers ran out the remaining time. The Rangers got their revenge after a tough loss to the Leafs last week and are back on track with a three game winning streak.

Final tally on shots on goal would be 36-33 in favor of the Rangers as they outhit the Leafs 36-20, went 2-for-2 on the power play and won 55% of face-offs. The Rangers will have a couple days off before kicking off yet another weekend back-to-back on home ice that starts with a visit from Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at 7:30 on Friday Night.