*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
If you're trying to break a 3 month goal drought, a good time to do it is when your team is trying to take over first place in their division. Ryan Reaves scored two goals, Adam Fox scored two goals, and the New York Rangers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 on Wednesday night in New York City.
The two goals for Reaves were the first two of the season for the physical winger, a big reason why the Rangers were able to retake first place in the Metropolitan Division with their 3rd straight win. Fox also had two goals and one assist, and Ryan Strome picked up a goal and an assist.
Reaves said of his first two goals of the season that "You never want to go three months without scoring. I tend to do that a lot in my career. Feels good to get them out of the way, especially in this barn. Hopefully they keep coming now. I think we're proving to the league, we're proving to ourselves, that we're a contender. The standings don't lie."
Ilya Mikheyev scored his 6th goal of the season 2:44 into the game for the Maple Leafs, giving them an early 1-0 lead, with Mitch Marner scoring on the power play 46 seconds later to double the lead to 2-0. Reaves then scored his first goal of the season 12:52 into the period, putting the Rangers on the board to cut the deficit to 2-1. Michael Bunting then scored for the Leafs to make it 3-1 after one period.
Reaves then struck again in the second period, making it a 3-2 game and a one goal deficit once again at the 2:58 mark, assisted by Jacob Trouba and K'Andre Miller. The game then was tied 3-3 thanks to a goal from Fox 17:49 into the period, his 6th of the year, with Strome and Artemi Panarin getting the assists on the tying goal.
Strome started the scoring in the 3rd period, giving the Rangers a 4-3 lead on his 9th goal of the season, 10:50 into the final period. That was followed up by Chris Kreider, who made it a 5-3 game 15:33 into the 3rd, on his 25th goal of the season. Fox provided the exclamation point with 2:24 left in the game, sealing the 6-3 win.
Asked about the goals in the 3rd period, Strome said "The goals were pretty simple goals, great turnovers, great plays and getting to the net. We've sat up here all year and we've preached that it's the simple things for our team, and it showed again tonight. They're a great hockey team, and I liked our response from our team in the last 40."
Getting the win in goal thanks to another strong outing was Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers, who once again did enough to help the Rangers win. Shesterkin saved 35 of the 38 shots that the Maple Leafs sent his way, good for a .921 save percentage to improve his record to 18-4-2 in 23 starts.
On the losing side of things was Jack Campbell for the Maple Leafs, who's strong start was undone by a subpar final 40 minutes. Campbell turned aside 21 of 26 shots on goal, posting a subpar .808 save percentage, his record now sitting at 19-6-3 in 28 starts this season.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe didn't hold back, saying that "We couldn't sort anything out. It was just far different. Each game has been different, so it's hard to talk about patterns other than the obvious that we've been giving up leads. I just thought we got exposed today for being a team that was just soft, soft and purposeless and just kind of playing the game and hoping it was going to work out."
Up next, the Rangers hit the road for a Friday night tilt with the Carolina Hurricanes, with Shesterkin the likely starter in goal for the Rangers. The Maple Leafs take on the New York Islanders on Saturday, with Campbell the favorite to start.
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