Noel Acciari scored the go-ahead goal at 12:21 of the third period, less than five minutes after Nylander scored to tie the game at 2-2.
The Rangers appeared to tie the game at 19:58 of the third period when the puck went in off Filip Chytil‘s right skate, but the goal was waived off after the officials went to video review and determined the puck was kicked.
New York, which finished third in the Metropolitan Division, found out after the game was over that it will play the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Devils finished second in the Metropolitan Division and won three out of four games against the Rangers this season. It will be the seventh time the Rangers and Devils have played each other in the playoffs and the first since the Eastern Conference Final in 2012, won by the Devils in six games.
“This is a rivalry that hasn’t been crazy since I got here so it’s going to be my first taste of some good rivalry hockey with Jersey,” Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “I think it’ll be exciting for the fans, exciting for the players. It’ll be a good matchup. They had a fantastic season. Speed, skill. They haven’t really taken a step back. They started hot and never really got phased at all. They’re a strong team.”
Video: TOR@NYR: Acciari scores the go-ahead goal in the 3rd
Timothy Liljegren scored, and Joseph Woll made 22 saves for the Maple Leafs (50-21-11). They played without forward John Tavares (personal reasons), defenseman Mark Giordano (undisclosed injury) and goalie Ilya Samsonov (undisclosed injury).
Toronto finished the season on a four-game winning streak, including a road sweep of the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Rangers — three Eastern Conference playoff teams — in the past four days.
The Maple Leafs, who finished second in the Atlantic Division, will open the playoffs against the Lightning at home next week. They lost a seven-game series against the Lightning in the first round last season.
“You want to get on the right side of these games and we really feel our team really coming together,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “While we’ve lost a couple of guys throughout this trip to injuries or personal situations, I think in the last couple of weeks with somewhat of our full complete group you could see the guys really come together. The energy of the group and the connectivity and cohesion has been really good.”
Video: TOR@NYR: Liljegren scores through five-hole in 3rd
Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers (47-22-13), and Jaroslav Halak made 18 saves. New York had a six-game point streak end (3-0-3).
“I think we’ve established a clearer idea of how we want to play and how we should play,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “I think the resilience in this group in this locker room has been there over the past two years. I don’t think there’s been anything new. There’s different challenges this year, but we’ll try to summarize and close this regular season, take a day and then focus on the playoffs.”
Kakko gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 1:38 of the first period, scoring with a backhanded shot from the right face-off circle off a pass from Vincent Trocheck after a Toronto giveaway in the defensive zone.
Liljegren tied it 1-1 at 3:09 of the third period from a step inside the right circle, closest to the wall, that hit off Niko Mikkola‘s stick blade and fluttered through Halak’s five-hole.
The Rangers appeared to take a 2-1 lead with a goal from Braden Schneider at 5:52, but the Maple Leafs used a coach’s challenge for offside. Video review determined that Trocheck entered the zone illegally 22 seconds earlier, negating the goal.
The Rangers took a 2-1 lead at 6:26, when Panarin scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from the left circle off a spin-o-rama pass from Adam Fox.
The lead lasted 1:22 before Nylander scored from in front of the net off a pass from O’Reilly to tie it 2-2 at 7:48. It was his sixth and last shot on goal of the game. He had 12 shot attempts.
“I was shooting it maybe a little bit more than usual today to get that 40th goal,” Nylander said. “It’s nice it came out in the end.”
Video: TOR@NYR: Nylander scores his 40th goal of the season
Acciari made it 3-2 at 12:21, scoring off a rebound of O’Reilly’s shot.
“I think we’re on the right track,” Acciari said. “We played three playoff teams to end the season and they were all one goal games. I think that’s just kind of helped us get ready for playoff-type hockey and each game we’ve gotten better.”
NOTES: Mitchell Marner was held off the scoresheet, leaving the Maple Leafs forward one point shy of his first 100-point season. He had 99 points (30 goals, 69 assists) in 80 games after getting 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 72 games last season. … Acciari’s goal was his 100th NHL point (59 goals, 41 assists). … The Rangers ended the season without allowing more than three goals in their past 19 games, their longest such streak since the 2014-15 season. … New York has won four of the previous six playoff series against New Jersey.
