Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Brendan Shanahan's shootout goal lifted the New
York Rangers past the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4, at Air Canada Centre.
After Henrik Lundqvist stoned his third straight skater in the shootout,
Shanahan calmly skated in and used his quick release to beat Andrew Raycroft
glove side.
"I just tried to go upstairs," said Shanahan. "I have been going downstairs
and that hasn't been very effective. I just got lucky."
Shanahan also lit the lamp in regulation for the Rangers, who won for just the
second time in their past six games. Nigel Dawes, Michael Nylander and Jason
Ward also found the back of the net for New York, while Jaromir Jagr had two
assists.
Lundqvist stopped 34-of-38 shots.
Darcy Tucker had two goals for the Maple Leafs, who have lost two of three.
Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jeff O'Neill added goals for Toronto while Raycroft
sent back 24 shots.
The Rangers drew first blood when Dawes found the back of the net for the
first time in his NHL career at 5:16 of the first period.
The Maple Leafs quickly evened things just over six minutes later when Tucker
intercepted a cross-ice pass and beat Lundqvist. Toronto then took its first
advantage when Ian White found Ponikarovsky on a long breakaway pass. The
forward skated in and went to the backhand to beat Lundqvist top-shelf.
The Rangers deadlocked things with 12 ticks left in the opening period after
Shanahan was able to bank the disc off Raycroft from just behind the goal
line.
New York went back in front on the power-play early in the second period.
Jagr's slap shot from just above the right circle was redirected in by
Nylander, who was stationed in front.
The back and fourth action continued from there. Less than three minutes
later, the Leafs scored a power-play goal of their own. Tomas Kaberle
delivered a beautiful pass from the top to Tucker, who was all alone on the
doorstep and made it a 3-3 game with 13:56 left in the second.
The fireworks continued and the Rangers quickly went back on top. Aaron Ward
sent the puck on net from the right point and Jason Ward was able to pick it
up and send it through the five-hole of Raycroft.
Things finally settled down in the third period, but Toronto kept plugging
away and O'Neill managed to tie things on an odd-man rush with three minutes
left in regulation. O'Neill took a beautiful pass from Matt Stajan and
unleashed a wicked wrist shot that got the best of Lundqvist.
"There are so many penalties in the game now, its killing the flow," a
frustrated O'Neill said. "Winning now is just staying out of the box and we
had a chance but we couldn't do anything in the shootout."
