NEW YORK _ Rangers coach David Quinn complained Friday that his team doesn't shoot enough, doesn't go to the net enough and doesn't get enough dirty goals.
"If you had judges put numbers up, we'd be at the top of the list of 10s when we score goals," Quinn said before the Rangers hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden. "But we need more greasy goals. We need more goals that are more blue-collar. Hope one goes off a skate, goes off a behind, goes off a shin pad, but that only comes from people going to the net."
Well, the Rangers went to the net Friday and they scored goals because of it. But Alexandar Georgiev, who had seemed to be emerging as the Rangers' No. 1 goalie, allowed a couple of iffy goals 47 seconds apart in the third period, and the result was a third straight loss for the Blueshirts, who fell to the Maple Leafs, 6-3.
With the score tied at 3, William Nylander scored his second goal of the game, beating Georgiev with a wrist shot off the rush at 2:10. Then Mitch Marner scored his second of the game, stealing a pass from Ryan Strome at the left boards, cutting to the slot and firing home a wrister at 2:57 to make it 5-3. Ilya Mikheyev added the final goal, beating Georgiev with a wrist shot off the rush at 16:23.
The loss dropped the Rangers' record to 16-14-4 with two games remaining before the three-day Christmas break. They will host Anaheim on Sunday afternoon and face the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday.
Pavel Buchnevich snapped a nine-game pointless streak with a goal and an assist for the Rangers, but linemate Artemi Panarin saw his five-game goal-scoring streak end. Panarin did have an assist on a first-period goal by Strome.
Despite an early power play, the Rangers were largely outplayed for most of the first period and fell behind 2-0 midway through it on goals 2:14 apart by Pierre Engvall and Nylander.
Engvall scored at 9:38 after Jacob Trouba left him uncovered in the slot to go chase the puck- carrier, Justin Holl, who was charging unchecked down the right lane. But Trouba couldn't get to Holl before he released his pass to Engvall, and the rookie from Sweden made no mistake from close range, scoring his second goal of the season.
Nylander made it 2-0 at 11:52 when he snuck behind Trouba to set up in the slot and was in perfect position to pop in the rebound of Kaspari Kapanen's wide-angle shot from the right wing half-boards.
But the Rangers tied the score before the period was over. Brady Skjei drove down the middle to redirect Mika Zibanejad's centering pass between goalie Frederik Andersen's legs at 14:04 for his fifth goal. (The assist on Skjei's goal was his 100th as a Ranger.) Then Buchnevich won the puck behind the Maple Leafs' goal and fed Panarin, who found Strome in front for the tying goal at 17:51.
"The last four or five periods he's played have been probably his best hockey so far," Quinn said of Buchnevich before the game. "So you know if he can continue to do those things, he's going to get rewarded eventually. And pucks that should go in sometimes don't; then when you get one that goes in, pucks that shouldn't go in usually end up going in. And goal-scoring can be very streaky."
Toronto retook the lead with a five-on-three power-play goal when Marner's feed to the crease deflected in off Skjei's stick at 2:50 of the second. Buchnevich tied it when he got the rebound of Marc Staal's shot, sweeping it in at 5:27.
