Rangers’ playoff chances grow dimmer after 4-3 loss to Maple Leafs
The New York Rangers saw their playoff hopes take another hit Thursday night when they lost 4-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who won their fourth straight visit to Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers were light years better than they were Tuesday, when they were outshot 35-13 and lost 2-1 to the Calgary Flames at the Garden. But the results were the same – a home loss, one that extended their slide at MSG to five games (0-4-1). They’ve lost twice to Toronto at the Garden in the past three weeks.
Will Borgen, Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider scored for the Rangers (33-31-6), and Igor Shesterkin finished with 24 saves in his season-high sixth consecutive start. But New York paid dearly for little mistakes – a bad pinch at the blue line, an unnecessary icing, the failure to complete a pass behind the net. Those are the kinds of things that separate playoff teams from clubs that are heading for the golf course in April.
“Mistakes are biting us,” defenseman Adam Fox said.
Kreider’s sixth-attacker tip-in with 34.7 seconds remaining cut the deficit to one goal, but the Rangers couldn’t get off another shot before time ran out. They also managed just five high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, while allowing nine, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Rangers are starting to run out of time. They have just 12 games remaining, two fewer than any of the teams they’re battling for a playoff spot. They dropped two points behind the Montreal Canadiens (33-27-8), who hold the second wild card in the East and got a point in a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.
The Isles (32-28-8) pulled even in points with the Rangers; both teams are one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets (31-28-9), who lost 1-0 in overtime to the Florida Panthers.
New York also has one of the toughest remaining schedules in the League, including two games against the Lightning and one each against the Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings and Minnesota Wild, all of whom are playoff-bound.
John Tavares had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who are battling with the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division. Bobby McMann and Matthew Knies also scored, defenseman Jake McCabe had three assists, and Edison, New Jersey, native Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves and outplayed Shesterkin to help Toronto win for the third time in four nights.
The Rangers will try to avoid getting swept on their four-game homestand when the Vancouver Canucks come to the Garden for a Saturday matinee; the game will follow ceremonies honoring Sam Rosen, the longtime TV voice of the Rangers who is retiring after this season. After that, it’s off to California for three games next week.
Related: Why it’s time for Rangers to try long-term Adam Fox-Braden Schneider pairing
Toronto Maple Leafs 4 – New York Rangers 3
The Rangers showed more energy in the first six minutes against the Maple Leafs than they did in the entire game against the Flames two nights earlier. Will Cuylle had an excellent chance four minutes in, but Toronto defenseman Brandon Carlo got a piece of his wide-open shot from the slot. They also out-hit the Maple Leafs 9-0 in the first eight minutes.
Shesterkin made an excellent save on Knies at 8:53, three seconds after K’Andre Miller took the game’s first penalty by tripping William Nylander. But he was beaten for the game’s first goal at 12:30 when Tavares took a pass from Jake McCabe and hammered a shot from just inside the left circle that beat Shesterkin cleanly for a 1-0 lead. The goal capped a 4-on-2 rush after Miller got caught pinching at Toronto’s blue line.
The Rangers got even with 47.9 seconds left by playing simple hockey – getting the puck into the zone and going to work. Carson Soucy, back in the lineup after three games as a healthy scratch, took a pass from Jonny Brodzinski at the left point and moved it to Borgen, whose shot from the top of the right circle went through a screen and into the net off the left post.
But before New York could get back to the dressing room with the 1-1 tie, a needless icing call with 18 seconds remaining proved costly. The Rangers won the draw, but McMann grabbed the loose puck, got it to McCabe at the left point and went to the front of the net, where he got a stick on his defenseman’s shot and deflected it past Shesterkin for a 2-1 lead.
New York needed just 1:22 of the second period to get even for the second time. Panarin extended his point streak to 11 games when he grabbed a rebound in the lower left circle and slammed it past Stolarz to make it 2-2.
The Rangers pressed the play for the next couple of minutes, only to have Toronto turn its first sustained pressure into a 3-2 lead. Tavares got his second of the game at 4:16 when McCabe’s shot hit McMann and caromed to No. 91, who snapped it high past Shesterkin to give the Maple Leafs their third one-goal lead. It was the 1,100th career point for Tavares, the first player taken in the 2009 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders.
The next 10 minutes belonged to the Rangers, who outshot Toronto 6-2 during that span but couldn’t get the tying goal. Instead, the Maple Leafs capitalized on a defensive misplay to make it 4-2 when Knies scored at 14:26. Miller’s pass behind the net became a turnover when Fox let it get past him; Nylander picked up the loose puck, circled behind the net and found Knies coming off the bench. Knies, who scored the winner in Toronto’s 3-2 win at MSG on Feb. 28, took a stride into the high slot and snapped a shot past Shesterkin.
Fox took the blame for what proved to be the game-winner.
“On that fourth goal, ‘Key’ bumps it back. I’m shoulder checking and it goes right by me,” he said. “That that can’t happen.
The Maple Leafs had the only shot on goal before the period expired and went to the dressing room with a two-goal lead.
The Rangers finally got their first power play of the game when Knies was called for slashing at 9:18, but did nothing with it except allow Toronto to burn two minutes off the clock and earn some boos from the Garden crowd. They mounted some pressure after pulling Shesterkin with 2:15 remaining and made it close when Kreider scored, but it was too little, too late.
They will try to salvage the final contest of a four-game homestand when they host the Vancouver Canucks in a Saturday matinee at The Garden.
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