Rangers overcome Matthews’ 2 goals, defeat Maple Leafs

The New York Rangers overcame two goals by Auston Matthews to end the Toronto Maple Leafs’ point streak at nine with a 5-2 win at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Mika Zibanejad scored twice, Erik Gustafsson had three assists, and Blake Wheeler and Chris Kreider each had two assists for the Rangers (22-7-1). Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves.

New York has won four of its past five games, with the lone loss in that span coming against the Maple Leafs last Tuesday (7-3).

“We had it circled and we thought we owed them one,” Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. “It was a game we wanted to get back at them for, and I thought we did just that.”

Martin Jones made 31 saves for the Maple Leafs (16-7-6), who were 6-0-3 during the point streak.

“They had three goals that just ping-ponged their way in, so unfortunate breaks there,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “We didn’t get a chance to see our power play tonight, and I thought we created some good looks and had some opportunities. I think their goalie was seeing it really well, and we probably could have done a little better job of trying to find second and thirds and make it a little more difficult for him to challenge and see pucks cleanly.”

Matthews tied it 2-2 at 1:16 of the third period with his NHL-leading 25th goal of the season. He skated in behind Kreider to the right face-off dot, took a pass from Jake McCabe, and roofed a shot over Shesterkin’s glove.

Matthews, who did not play in a 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday because of an illness, has nine goals during a personal five-game goal streak.

“I didn’t like the way we started the third period, not just the goal, but we just needed to press more and have a little more energy inside of our game,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “The resolve after that, after they tied it up, I thought we got going in the right direction and played a pretty sharp period from there.”

Schneider put the Rangers back in front 3-2 at 8:08, cutting around Tavares as he drove down the right wing before shooting five-hole on Jones.

“I saw a bit of ice to skate, and Gustafsson gave me a good pass,” Schneider said. “I think there might have been a little bit of a pick (at the blue line) or something, I don’t know what happened, but some ice opened up and I had some speed going through and I just tried to put it on net, and fortunately enough it went in.”

Artemi Panarin pushed it 4-2 at 15:08 when his shot from the left circle deflected in off the skate of Maple Leafs defenseman William Lagesson for a power-play goal.

Zibanejad shot into an empty net at 16:47 for the 5-2 final.

“We played a pretty good game in a lot of different areas,” Matthews said. “Three goals with three fluky bounces, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I thought we hung in there for the most part.

“They’re just a really deep team and they’ve got four lines that can all skate and make plays and make it hard on you, so it’s always a good test playing these guys. They’ve got great goaltending and just a deep team, so with the way the game went last week against them, you knew they were going to be coming out here to play.”

New York took a 1-0 lead at 6:11 of the second period when Wheeler’s attempted pass deflected off Zibanejad’s skate, the body of TJ Brodie and then McCabe’s stick before going into the net.

Matthews tied it 1-1 at 7:32. Morgan Rielly carried the puck into the zone and to the bottom of the left circle before passing back to Matthews, who lifted in a shot from the hash marks.

Alexis Lafrenière responded for the Rangers on the power play to make it 2-1 at 9:50, scoring with a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected in off Rielly.

It was Lafreniere’s first goal since Nov. 22 (13 games).

“It was a shot, but it was a pretty lucky goal,” he said. “It went off something, I don’t know, maybe a defenseman, but lucky, but good to see it go in.

“Playing with [Panarin] and Trocheck, you’re going to get good looks, for sure, because they’re such good playmakers, so it was good to see one go in, and hopefully keep producing.”