TORONTO – The question for the Rangers before their game against the Maple Leafs Wednesday in Scotiabank Arena was how they were would handle all of the Leafs' star power.
And the Rangers handled them just fine, for the first 60 minutes.
But then, Mitch Marner got hold of the puck, dangled his way around Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin and tucked it in 19 seconds into the overtime to deal the Rangers a 3-2 loss in their penultimate game before the bye week/All-Star break.
Shesterkin made 33 saves.
It was a tough loss for the Rangers (26-15-7), but they did salvage a point despite failing to protect a one-goal lead in the third period. Timothy Liljegren’s goal at 15:49 of the third period tied it after Filip Chytil’s two second-period goals had given the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Former Islander John Tavares hit the goalpost before the final horn and the game went to overtime.
Rookie Will Cuylle, making his NHL debut before family and friends in his hometown of Toronto, had a rough start, as his line was on the ice when the Maple Leafs took an early 1-0 lead, on a goal by Pontus Holmberg 2:27 into the game.
The play began when defenseman Braden Schneider pinched in at the right boards, but Toronto’s Alexander Kerfoot got the puck out, up the wall, to Joey Anderson. Schneider’s defense partner, had rotated over to cover Schneider, but Anderson sent a pass to the middle for Holmberg, who was in on a breakaway. He scored his fifth goal of the season on a backhander.
But the Rangers seemed to settle themselves over the rest of the period and Chytil’s cheeky goal off the faceoff at 2:10 of the second period tied it. Chytil, the Rangers’ worst regular faceoff man with a 38.6% success rate entering the game, was taking a draw in the left-wing circle, and instead of trying to draw the puck back, he swung his stick forward as the linesman dropped the puck, effectively firing a one-timer that went in against Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov (26 saves).
For all his line-juggling, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant has a couple of staples he knows he can always come back to when he’s shaking things up, looking for something positive.
One of those staples is the line of the three young forwards, Alexis Lafrenière, Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, who were so dynamic during the Rangers’ playoff run last year. In his latest restructuring of the forward lines, Gallant brought the three, known as the Kid Line, back together, and they were the best line for the Rangers on Wednesday.
Chytil’s second goal came when linemate Kakko stole the puck from Toronto’s Mitch Marner inside the Leafs’ zone and flipped a pass to Lafrenière, who returned the puck to Kakko, above the left circle. Kakko skated to the net, cut around defenseman Justin Holl at the bottom of the circle, and centered a pass to Chytil at the far post for a one-timer that beat Samsonov at 6:31.
The goal was Chytil’s 15th of the season, giving him a new career-high. He had 14 in his second full season, in 2019-20.
Chytil just missed scoring a natural hat trick later in the second period when his shot hit the post after chasing down a puck.
