Matthew Knies scored the tiebreaking goal with 13:39 left following a misplay behind the net by goaltender Igor Shesterkin as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs recorded a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday.
The Maple Leafs dumped the puck behind the New York net, and Shesterkin mishandled it with his stick as Mitch Marner blocked his clearing attempt. Auston Matthews stole the puck, made a move to the left side of the crease and slid it over to Knies, who snapped a 2-2 tie by sliding the puck into the open right side of the net before Shesterkin could cover in time.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored a power-play goal early in the first period and William Nylander tallied on a fortuitous bounce in the opening minute of the second as the Maple Leafs won their fourth straight game. Toronto is 7-1-0 over the past eight games.
Mika Zibanejad scored and assisted on Will Cuylle’s short-handed goal, but the Rangers were unable to win their third straight and remained four points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz made 33 saves.
Shesterkin stopped 14 shots.
After Matthews drew a tripping penalty on Zibanejad, the Leafs went ahead on their first shot on goal 1:47 into the contest.
Toronto cycled the puck around and Max Domi made a cross-ice feed from near the right corner to Ekman-Larsson in the left circle. The defenseman finished it off by burying a one-timer over Shesterkin’s pad.
The Rangers evened it with 6:52 left in the first. Zibanejad freely moved around the net to the lower edge of the right circle and tipped in a shot by Will Borgen, who got to the rebound of J.T. Miller’s shot.
Nylander scored on a partial breakaway 51 seconds into the second when he beat New York defenseman Urho Vaakanainen. The puck got behind Shesterkin, banked off his pad into the net and was ruled a goal after a brief video review.
Cuylle tied it 3:47 into the third by finishing off a short-handed breakaway. He took a cross-ice pass from Zibanejad and slid a backhander by Stolarz while colliding with the net.
