The Maple Leafs started strong, and finished strong. And though there were some questionable moments in between, the Leafs used two-goal nights from Mitch Marner and William Nylander to beat the New York Rangers 6-3.
The Leafs got off to a 2-0 lead, didn’t wilt when the Rangers tied the game, and erupted for three goals in the third period in one of their more dominant games under new coach Sheldon Keefe.
“We controlled the puck, we didn’t throw it away,” said Marner, who has a six-game points streak. “We put the pedal down. We’ve got to make sure we keep doing it.”
Keefe called it progress. “It’s even going to the third period, then we get the lead and I thought we did a pretty good job of taking care of it, so there’s progress and that’s really what you’re looking for.”
The Leafs won for the fifth time in six games. They are 9-4-0 under Keefe — 6-3-0 on the road — and now have 40 points in 36 games. The win moved them into a playoff spot, third in the Atlantic Division, a point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres.
“Satisfaction is not a good word,” Keefe said. “We’re going to be in a battle all season long here. Other teams just keep winning games and it’s a tough league. So we just have to continue to focus every single day on being our best and making improvements along the way.”
Ilya Mikheyev added an insurance marker later in the third. Pierre Engvall opened the scoring for the Leafs.
Brady Skjei, Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Rangers.
- Broadway show: Nylander and Marner each got their second goals of the night 47 seconds apart early in the third period to break a 3-3 tie.
Nylander scored on a wrist shot on a 3-on-2 rush, taking a feed from Auston Matthews, beating Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev between the pads.
Marner’s goal came the next shift. The Rangers had possession in their own zone and Marner’s linemates retreated for a line change. But Marner managed to strip the puck off Artemi Panarin and,despite being surrounded by four blue shirts, he got a decent wrist shot away for the Leafs fifth goal.
- Offensive outburst: The Leafs have scored six goals in a game twice under Keefe, and four or more in eight games. They’re getting offence from all lines. So what’s the biggest difference?
“Confidence,” Marner said. “Playing with the puck. Everyone’s getting their time out there with puck in their hands and not throwing it away and not feeling rushed. Every single line has a lot of skill on it and can score.
“So we have four lines that can control the puck consistently and we’re getting good line changes in the offensive zone. When you’re coming out fresh against tired guys, it’s hard for teams to defend that.”
- But who’s counting? The Leafs are 18-14-4, or back to .500 by counting overtime losses and shootout losses as losses. They haven’t been at .500 since Nov. 11. They’re on pace for 91 points at the moment, not typically enough to nail down a playoff but that may not be a concern if they can keep on this roll they’ve started.
It was also the 18th win of the year for Frederik Andersen. Backup Michael Hutchinson will try for his first win on Saturday when the Leafs play the Red Wings at the Scotiabank Arena.
This is the ninth of 14 sets of back-to-back games this season. Toronto is 4-3-2 in the first game of back-to-backs and 1-6-1 in the second game of back-to-backs.
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- A good third: The outburst from Nylander and Marner helped reverse a trend. The Leafs have been terrible in third periods — outscored 52-38 in the final frame coming into the game. Under Keefe, they have held leads going into third periods and have typically played a scattered game. They were tied in this one and played their best third period in some time.
“We’ve talked about in some of the previous games when the third periods haven’t gone well that the second period is maybe when some of the issues started to come up,” Keefe said. “I thought some of the positives of the second period today — which I thought there were lots — carried through to the third period.
“Obviously, we got a good start and the puck went in the net for us. That helped, but there were a lot of really good signs for our team in terms of how we retained the puck, which I thought was a real key to this game.”
- Scoring first: The Leafs are quite good at it lately. Thet jumped out to a 2-0 lead, with goals by Engvall and Nylander. It was the sixth time in a row and the 10th time in 13 games under Keefe. So, good right?
- Think again: The other trend with the Leafs is sloppy own-zone play, and weak attempts at clearing the zone. That allowed the Rangers to tie the game. Goals by Skjei and Strome were the result of avoidable turnovers.
- Depth delivers: With Engvall and Mikheyev scoring, the Leafs’ bottom six forwards have contributed greatly in recent games. Mikheyev (three times), Frederik Gauthier (twice), Alex Kerfoot and Dmytro Timashov have all scored in the last three games.
Credit to the idea of creating four lines that can score. “You’d like to have that all the time,” Keefe said. “It’s worked out really well. The puck has fallen to those guys at good times and they’ve made good on it. So that gives you a boost every time that happens.”
- Injury report: Andreas Johnsson remains on the long-term injured reserve with a leg injury. Trevor Moore (shoulder) could be ready to play any day now. “We’re going to see how things go,” Keefe said. “But, obviously, I’m excited to get Trevor back up and running.”
- Notes: The Leafs went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-3 on the power play … They outshot New York 40-22 … Toronto is 5-5-1 after being tied in the second period …. Morgan Rielly is the second Maple Leaf defencemen (Borje Salming) to begin his career with seven consecutive 20-assist seasons
- Up next: The Leafs face the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, 7 p.m.
