Antropov, Leafs Hand Rangers Second Straight Home Loss
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Nik Antropov scored a career-high three goals, chasing Henrik Lundqvist and sending the Toronto Maple Leafs to a season-high fourth straight victory, 6–2 over the slumping Rangers last night.
Toronto, which hadn’t won more than two in a row before this spurt, beat the Rangers in both road meetings this season — outscoring them 9–3. The Maple Leafs scored six times on 16 shots.
Matt Stajan and Mats Sundin gave Toronto a 2–0 lead in the first period on only four shots, but that advantage was gone before the intermission. Alex Steen scored late in the third, and Vesa Toskala finished with 23 saves.
Defensemen Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin got New York even, both scoring power-play goals off passing plays by forwards Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. It wasn’t enough to prevent the Rangers’ fourth loss in five home games.
New York was outscored 9–2 in consecutive home losses this week to Carolina and Toronto.
The Leafs regained momentum lost over the final 10 minutes of the first period and rebuilt their two-goal lead in the second despite only 10 shots through 40 minutes. Much like their 3–1 win over Nashville on Tuesday night when they had a season-low 15 shots, the Maple Leafs were very efficient on their shooting percentage.
Antropov scored his first two goals in the second period to stake Toronto to a 4–2 lead.
Steve Valiquette started the third period for New York in relief of Lundqvist, who allowed four goals for the second straight game — both at home — after going 18 straight without yielding more than three.
Antropov finished off his first NHL hat trick when he made it 5–2 at 3:34 off the third, putting a shot past Valiquette’s glove.
He started the natural hat trick with a power-play goal 5:11 into the second period when a rebound of Steen’s shot bounced off Lundqvist’s blocker right to him for an easy putback that snapped a 2–2 tie.
The Leafs’ lead grew back to two goals with deft stick work by the 6-foot-6-inch Antropov. Hal Gill, who again kept Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr in check, held Girardi’s backhanded clearing attempt in at the blue line and moved the puck to Ian White for a shot.
