NEW YORK — This was supposed to be a killer portion of the schedule for the Rangers, who were struggling coming into it.
But they’ve found a way to not just survive the gauntlet of Western Conference-leading Vegas, Stanley Cup champion Colorado, Metropolitan Division-leading New Jersey and now Toronto, but actually thrive, and climb the standings. Jimmy Vesey had two goals, the first which broke a tie late in the second period and the second into an empty net to seal a 3-1 win over the previously hot Maple Leafs Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers extended their winning streak to five games, while they snapped Toronto’s at four. The Rangers improved to 16-10-5 (37 points) and moved into the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto, which had brought a 9-0-1 record over its last 10 games into Thursday, fell to 19-6-6. And Toronto forward Mitch Marner had his consecutive game point streak end at 23 as the Rangers and goaltender Igor Shesterkin (22 saves) held him off the scoresheet.
Marner’s best chance came with 5:31 remaining in regulation time, when he broke in up the right wing with Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba racing over to angle him off. Marner fired a shot to the far side that Shesterkin saved with his right pad.
The Rangers are 6-1-1 since their Nov. 28 loss to the Devils, which was the game where Shesterkin declared himself “ashamed’’ at how he was playing. He’s 5-0-1 since then.
The Rangers now leave for a three-game road trip to Philadelphia Saturday, Chicago Sunday, and Pittsburgh Tuesday before they return home on Dec. 22 for their final game before the Christmas break, against the Islanders.
Besides dressing Vitali Kravtsov for the first time in four games, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant also had another surprise up his sleeve, when he pulled the top power-play unit with 59 seconds remaining on the Blueshirts’ first power play in the first period, giving the second power-play group a lot more time to work with than they usually get. And the group produced the game’s first goal, when Filip Chytil took a pass from Kaapo Kakko and roofed a shot over fallen Toronto goaltender Matt Murray for his seventh goal of the season at 3:52.
The Maple Leafs tied it at 14:06 on a goal by Michael Bunting that came on the rebound of a shot by David Kampf. Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba had lost his stick in the corner and as he went to go retrieve it, the front of the net was momentarily unguarded. And when Igor Shesterkin kicked out Kampf’s shot, Bunting was able to get to the rebound before Chytil and jam it in.
But in a second period that featured little action (a combined 10 shots on goal by both teams) the Rangers grabbed the lead on a pretty individual effort by Vesey late in the period.
K’Andre Miller’s poke check just below the Rangers’ blue line got the puck to Vincent Trocheck, who was away with Vesey on a two-on-two break. Trocheck passed to Vesey on the right wing and as Toronto defenseman T.J. Brodie dropped to his stomach to cut off the passing lane. So Vesey pulled the puck past the full length of Brodie, got the puck on his backhand, then switched to the forehand and lifted it over Murray for his fourth goal of the season, at 15:33.
His second goal, came with 1:13 remaining, with Murray pulled for the extra attacker.
