Recap: Rangers Make It Three in a Row With Win Over Toronto

The Rangers first road trip of the season continued with a stop in Toronto for a Hockey Night In Canada matchup with the Maple Leafs. Lots of interesting changes to the Rangers lineup as Ryan Lindgren remains on the IR and Zac Jones became a healthy scratch to give Chad Ruhwedel a night on the third pairing with Victor Mancini. Additionally, Jonny Brodzinski came out to get Matt Rempe back in the mix on the fourth line.  With both team’s looking to add to their win streaks, one would come to an end as the puck dropped for another original six matchup. 

1st Period:

The Rangers got off to a strong start generating scoring chances early on as Jacob Trouba found Chris Kreider right in his net-front office for a Grade-A scoring chance within the first five minutes. That top line continued to push as Mika Zibanejad had a great rebound chance off a shot from Reilly Smith on their next shift out. Good pace through the first half of the period as both sides were buzzing offensively with a bit of a physical edge. 

With about eight minutes to go in the period, Artemiy Panarin fished the puck out to Victor Mancini at the point who let a quick wrist shot go to generate a good scoring chance on the rebound. After Vincent Trocheck attempted to get a stick on it, Alexis Lafrenière did his thing as he picked up the bouncing puck, waited for the right moment and fired the shot into the back of the net, 1-0 Rangers. A nice five-game point streak to start the season for Lafrenière who picked up his third goal of the year with just as many assists on the year. 

Right back to work on the following shift, the Rangers third line continued to impress as Filip Chytil carried the puck through the neutral zone with Kaapo Kakko open on the right wing. Chytil held onto the puck a little too long which ended up working in his team’s favor as he drew a holding penalty against Pontus Holmberg to send the Rangers to their first power play of the night. The top power play unit did their thing with Chris Kreider nearly making it a two-goal game on a pretty deflection in front that went off the post. Alas, the Leafs killed off the full two minutes to keep the period moving. 

An effective shift from the Rangers’ fourth line as Matt Rempe took the puck to the net in an attempt to find Sam Carrick in front. The attempt would go wide but a great effort from Carrick on the back check kept the Leafs from what would have been a significant odd-man rush. Their best chance of the period would undoubtedly come in the final couple of minutes in the first as William Nylander found himself in all alone on Igor Shesterkin. It looked like Igor got a piece of it but the shot went just wide on the glove side. 

A strong start to the night as the Rangers out-shot the Maple Leafs 10-7 and out-hit them 11-5. K’Andre Miller and Will Cuylle in particular had some noticeably big and effective checks that helped set the tone for the Rangers. Only shortcoming through the opening twenty was in the face-off circles as the Leafs won all but two of the 13 draws. 

2nd Period:

Shesterkin would begin to be tested more as the night went on as he came up with a massive sprawling save just a few minutes into the second stanza to flash the glove on David Kampf. A strong shift from the Leafs fourth line that kept Victor Mancini and Chad Ruhwedel out there for a lengthy run. 

Nearing the midway point of the evening, the Rangers were going to head to their second power play of the night as Smith was taken down but thanks to a strong 6-on-5 shift from the group on the ice, they would save the Leafs a trip to the box. A brilliant tic-tac-toc passing play from Smith and Zibanejad found Chris Kreider right on the doorstep to guide a laser pass from Mika home to extend their lead 2-0. A beautiful pass for what became Zibanejad’s 300th assist as a New York Ranger. 

About two minutes later, the Leafs would get their first power play of the night as Artemiy Panarin was called for slashing Matthew Knies. This would be the first of two big penalty kills for the Rangers as Kaapo Kakko was sent off for high-sticking Max Domi just a minute and a half after the penalty to Panarin expired. The first time around, the Rangers did a great job of keeping Toronto to just one shot on goal but on the Kakko penalty, they were a bit more aggressive. Alas, they got some help from Shesterkin as he came up with an incredible windmill-style glove save point blank on John Tavares. 

Worth noting this was Kakko’s fourth penalty in the last two games. Offensively, he’s been a key part in that third line looking as good as they have. However, he needs to drop this habit of ending up in the penalty box. The Rangers ended the period on another power play as Max Domi was called for cross-checking Jacob Trouba. The Rangers wouldn’t convert but took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission. Shots on goal now 18-17 in favor of the Rangers who were now being out-chanced by the Leafs, blocking 15 potential shots on goal. 

Arguably one of the biggest highlights of the period came towards the end when the Toronto Maple Leafs honored Sam Rosen during a timeout for his final season calling the Rangers. Classy move by Scotiabank Arena and the Maple Leafs Organization. Makes sense considering Brendan Shanahan, President of the Leafs spent some time as a Ranger towards the end of his career. 

3rd Period:

The Rangers still had a few seconds on the power play to start the third but it wouldn’t be enough to do anything as the Leafs weren’t going to go down without a fight. Just a few minutes later, Auston Matthews did what superstars are meant to do and made a strong push to the net from behind the goal line and found a way to beat Shesterkin to bring his team within one. 

Matthews nearly tied it up just a couple of minutes later as Mitch Marner found him alone right at the doorstep as he thankfully fumbled the puck a little bit. Tough lesson for Victor Mancini and/or Chad Ruhwedel to not leave one of the best players in the world wide open like that. The pair of chances, one of which a success, was just the start of what became a strong push from the Leafs who went on to out-shoot the Rangers 18-11 throughout the third. Igor Shesterkin with another brilliant performance to keep his team in it. 

Jacob Trouba tripped up Matthews with about seven-and-a-half to go in the game while attempting to block a shot. Shesterkin continued to stand on his head, putting his mouth where his desired money is. Matthews and Nylander, two of the best goalscorers in the league combined for 16 shots on goal alone with Igor shutting down all but one of them. 

With a minute and a half to go, the Leafs pulled Anthony Stolarz for the extra attacker which quickly resulted in Kreider’s second of the night on an empty net goal. That pretty much called it there but Panarin would add to the tally with an ENG of his own with less than 15 seconds to go. This secured the Rangers third win in a row as they’ve picked up at least a point in all five of their outings to start the 24/25 season. 

All in all, another solid outing from the Blueshirts as their top players continue to perform with Shesterkin, Panarin, Lafrenière and Kreider leading the way. The Rangers will remain in Eastern Canada as they’ll take on the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday Night for a 7:15 puck drop as they look to keep the wins coming.