Less Is More For The Leafs In New York

Playing their hottest stretch of hockey of the season, the Maple Leafs went into New York looking to grow their winning streak to four consecutive games with a victory over the Rangers on Thursday night. Coming off a fifteen shot performance against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, good enough for a 3-1 victory, the Maple Leafs again made the most of a limited shot output scoring six times on sixteen shots against the New York Rangers. Despite their recent success generating under twenty shots per game, this is not a trend the Maple Leafs will want to continue.

Vesa Toskala was the primary reason for victory against the Predators on Tuesday, stealing a win for his team in arguably his best performance as a Maple Leaf. On Thursday against the Rangers, the Maple Leafs benefited from an unusually shaky Hendrick Lundqvist who seemed to battle the puck throughout the first two periods of this game before being pulled in favour of Stephan Valiquette to begin the final frame.

A more determined commitment to the defensive side of the game is likely the reason for the drop off in shots over the last few contests. The Maple Leafs are not taking as many chances offensively in order to ensure they keep things under control in their own zone. Earlier in the season when their offense was firing on full power, they were generating their chances at the expense of reliable defensive positioning which inevitably ended up costing them wins when they were simply unable to outscore their opponents.

Matt Stajan and Mats Sundin scored within the first eleven minutes of the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead. The Rangers fought back to tie the game at two goals a piece before the end of the opening frame when Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin capitalized on two power play opportunities.

In the second period, Nik Antropov took over scoring twice before adding another early in the final frame to give the Maple Leafs a commanding 5-2 lead. The three goals marked a natural hat trick for Antropov and the second hat trick of his career.

Late in the third period, Matt Stajan set up a “goal of the year” candidate eventually finishing a tic-tac-toe play by sending a pass across the Rangers goal crease to Alex Steen who tapped it in for his fifth goal of the season.

The Maple Leafs will look to keep rolling on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins.