Forward gets winner for Toronto 58 seconds into extra period; New York has lost 3 straight
Rangers at Maple Leafs | Recap
TORONTO — Auston Matthews scored 58 seconds into overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
Matthews, who had two goals on Tuesday in a 7-4 win against the Nashville Predators, redirected a pass at the side of the net from William Nylander on a 2-on-1 for the game-winning goal.
“Had some time and space,” Matthews said. “We’ve seen that a lot of times before just playing that little give-and-go, and obviously he is a great passer. He put it right on my tape, and Morgan Rielly made a great play in our zone to break up the play and get us on that 2-on-1 with a lot of time and space.”
NYR@TOR: Matthews knocks in Nylander’s dish to end it in OT
Matthew Knies scored and Anthony Stolarz made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (3-2-0), who have won two in a row.
“Third period they had the momentum but we grinded it out though,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Our goalie was good, but we’ve got to be better than that. But it was a win.”
Juuso Parssinen scored, and Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (2-3-1), who had been shut out in each of their prior two games (1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Sunday, 2-0 to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday).
“The easy route is to be discouraged, but the right route and the hard route is to make sure we just get more determined,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “We will build on the positives, and there’s a lot to like about our game. It’s a conscious choice that we all make on what our choice is going to be, and I know our guys are going to make the right one.”
The Maple Leafs went up 1-0 at 11:48 of the first period when Knies redirected a shot from Nylander at the top of the goal crease on the power play. It was the first power-play goal of the season for Toronto on its 10th opportunity.
New York had been a perfect 10-for-10 on the penalty kill entering the game.
“We just grinded through the game,” Nylander said. “We got that power-play goal, which was nice. Sometimes they were pressuring us and we were able to play good defense, I think, but obviously Stolarz stood on his head.”
Stolarz kept it 1-0 at 17:39 when he reached across with his glove while sitting on the ice to stop Will Cuylle at the side of the net.
“It feels like we are playing good hockey,” Cuylle said. “It’s easy to get frustrated and change the way you are playing, but as a team, a staff and players, we feel like we are playing the right way. It’s kind of crazy the last three games, it feels like we’ve outshot and outchanced every game. It’s just how it goes sometimes. I think over a long season it will end up balancing out.”
Stolarz made another excellent save at 16:53 of the second period, when he slid across the goal crease to make a left pad save on Sam Carrick, who took a pass at the top of the goal crease on a 2-on-1 with Taylor Raddysh
“He was incredible tonight,” Matthews said. “Just another example of just what a gamer he is. … He definitely made some huge saves for us tonight in all situations. It was pretty incredible to see. We’d obviously take a little less of a load off him, but when those situations come, they’re a good team, they’ve got skilled players, they’re going to get their opportunities and he came up huge.”
The Rangers tied it 1-1 at 4:51 of the third period when Parssinen deflected a shot from Braden Schneider in the slot. The goal was the Rangers’ first in 170:39.
“I think we are generating a lot of really quality chances,” Schneider said. “I think once we get a few we are going to start to feel confident about putting it home. I think our game is in a really good spot. You obviously want the results and you want to get as many wins as you can when we are playing as well as we are. We need to just keep pushing through and hope for more to go in because I think our game is in a really good spot right now.”
NYR@TOR: Parssinen knocks Schneider’s shot into the cage
Stolarz kept it 1-1 at 16:47. A shot from Matt Rempe in the slot knocked his mask off, but Stolarz still made another left pad save on J.T. Miller at 16:50 before the play was stopped.
“I was a little scared to be honest. I don’t know how it came to that,” Knies said. “I thought it was supposed to be blown but I don’t know. That was a shocker for everyone I think.”
NOTES: Matthews’ overtime goal tied him with Mats Sundin for the most in franchise history (14). He has four points (three goals, one assist) during a three-game point streak. … Knies has six points (two goals, four assists) during a three-game point streak.
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