The Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Rangers on Thursday, taking advantage of two disallowed goals to ruin New York’s chances of winning their home opener.
The Maple Leafs (6-2-1) withstood an early charge by the Rangers (3-3-2), who were the last team in the NHL to play at home after starting the season with two games in Europe and five on the road while Madison Square Garden underwent renovations.
Dan Giradri opened the scoring for the Rangers when he beat Maple Leafs goaltender Jonas Gustavsson through the legs with a slap shot, before Ryan Callahan then had two goals disallowed for contact that prevented Gustavsson from saving the shots.
Photo: Reuters
“We did a lot of good things. It was a good team effort,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “The one shot, that was a shot the Monster [Gustavsson] should’ve had, then he stopped some ones that he shouldn’t have. I thought after that first goal, the Monster made some big saves for us and kept us going.”
The Maple Leafs scored the only goal of the second period on a snap shot from a bad angle by Matthew Lombardi that beat Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
Lundqvist redeemed himself stopping Phil Kessel on two breakaways in the middle period to keep the score even, before the Maple Leafs took command of the game.
Joffrey Lupul muscled his way through a crowd to knock in a rebound early in the third period to give Toronto the lead, which Clarke MacArthur and Mike Brown extended before Michael Del Zotto scored a late goal for the Rangers.
JETS 9, FLYERS 8
In Philadelphia, Andrew Ladd scored the game-winner with 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining on a one-timer from close range to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a wild victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Fifteen players scored in the wide-open game in which both clubs set season highs for goals scored and goals allowed and the Jets tied a franchise record for goals in a game.
Philadelphia’s Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk were the only multiple goal scorers with two each. Kimmo Timonen had four assists and Scott Hartnell added a goal and assist. Claude Giroux and Max Talbot also scored for Flyers.
Nik Antropov and Tanner Glass each had a goal and two assists for the Jets. Evander Kane and Alex Burmistrov each added a goal and an assist and Blake Wheeler had three assists for Winnipeg.
OILERS 2, CAPITALS 1
In Edmonton, Canada, Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist, while Nikolai Khabibulin made 34 saves as Edmonton handed the Washington their first loss of the season.
Taylor Hall also scored for the Oilers, who have won three in a row.
Karl Alzner scored for the Capitals, who lost for the first time this season after a 7-0 start.
The Capitals were one of just 10 teams in NHL history to start a season 7-0.
PENGUINS 3, ISLANDERS 2, SO
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Evgeni Malkin’s shootout goal capped a rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period as Pittsburgh extended their winning streak to five with a victory over the New York Islanders.
Pittsburgh’s second shooter of the shootout, Malkin walked in against Rick DiPietro — inserted into the game to relieve Evgeni Nabokov when the shootout began — made multiple dekes in close and slid the puck under a sprawling DiPietro with his backhand.
Chris Kunitz and James Neal scored 2 minutes, 46 seconds apart early in the third period less than a minute after Matt Martin had given the Islanders a 2-0 lead.
SABRES 4, BLUE JACKETS 2
In Buffalo, New York, rookie goalie Jhonas Enroth made 41 saves, while Jason Pominville had two goals and an assist as Buffalo sent the sliding Columbus to another defeat.
Brad Boyes had a goal and assist, Patrick Kaleta snapped a third-period tie and Thomas Vanek added three assists for the Sabres (6-3-0), who won for the first time in three games played in Buffalo by snapping a two-game losing streak.
CANADIENS 2, BRUINS 1
In Boston, Tomas Plekanec put one in each net, making up for an own goal by scoring the tiebreaker with 9 minutes, 14 seconds remaining to give Montreal a victory over Boston.
It was the teams’ first meeting since a seven-game series in the first round of the playoffs that Boston won en route to their sixth Stanley Cup championship.
All of the old animosity was still there, with Brad Marchand and P.K. Subban the latest to brawl in an “Original Six” rivalry that’s nearly a century old.
In other games, it was:
‧ Senators 4, Panthers 3
‧ Ducks 3, Wild 2
‧ Predators 5, Lightning 3
‧ Coyotes 5, Devils 3
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