Nylander, Marner propel Maple Leafs past Rangers

NEW YORK -- William Nylander had his first three-point game of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won their third straight, 6-3 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Nylander scored two goals after not scoring in the previous seven games. He had an assist on one of Mitchell Marner's two goals.
Frederik Andersen made 19 saves in his ninth straight start for Toronto (18-14-4), which is 5-1-0 in its past six games and 9-4-0 since coach Sheldon Keefe took over for Mike Babcock on Nov. 20.
WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Rangers highlights]
"We've seen progress for sure, and I like that," Keefe said. "Even at times when it hasn't looked the greatest we're still seeing progress. Today was a different type of game. We score early again and the game gets away from us. It's even going to the third period, then we get the lead and I thought we did a good job of taking care of it, so there's progress and that's really what you're looking for."
The Maple Leafs outscored the Rangers 3-0 in the third period, a change from their season-long trend of struggling in the third. They were a minus-14 in goal differential in the third period entering the game (38-52) and their 52 goals allowed are the most in the League.
"We controlled the puck, we didn't throw it away, kept the pedal down," Marner said. "That's something we've just got to make sure we keep doing in the thirds. It's something that we haven't been consistent at. We have to make sure just keep the pedal down in the thirds, make sure we're trying to give teams no space."

Artemi Panarin had his five-game goal streak end for the Rangers (16-14-4) but had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (seven goals, three assists).
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, ending a nine-game streak without a point. Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves.
"I'm frustrated," Georgiev said. "A couple goals in the third, I need to be better on those. I'm just frustrated about that."
The Rangers have lost two in a row and are winless in their past three (0-2-1).
"This league can be streaky and we don't get a point in our last two games, all of a sudden you spiral a little bit," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "We've got to be ready to play on Sunday afternoon [against the Anaheim Ducks]."
Pierre Engvall scored from the slot to give Toronto a 1-0 lead at 9:38 of the first period. The Maple Leafs have scored the first goal in six straight games after allowing the first goal in 21 of their first 30 games.
Nylander made it 2-0 at 11:52, scoring off a rebound of Kasperi Kapanen's shot.

Brady Skjei brought the Rangers within 2-1 at 14:04, and Ryan Strome tied it 2-2 at 17:51. It was Strome's first goal in 16 games.
Marner scored 5-on-3 to give Toronto a 3-2 lead at 2:50 of the second period, but Buchnevich tied it 3-3 at 5:27.
Toronto outshot the Rangers 13-4 in the second period.
"The message was just to keep going and stay with it [in the third period]," Keefe said. "That was the challenge for us. The guys did and it worked out for us."

Nylander scored from the right circle on a 3-on-2 rush at 2:10 of the third period to give the Maple Leafs a 4-3 lead.
"We didn't have the right mindset coming into the third period," Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said.
Marner scored 47 seconds later to make it 5-3, and Ilya Mikheyev scored with 3:37 remaining for the 6-3 final.
"We've been a good third-period team this year and we certainly weren't tonight," Quinn said. "So as I stand here in front of you it's tough to like anything about our game tonight."

They said it

"I think we just had a different mentality coming in [to the third period]. It was tied 3-3 and we knew we had to go out and get the game." -- Maple Leafs forward William Nylander
"I just thought our attention to detail against this team really was poor. Just really sloppy. Not recognizing situations, turnovers, really playing east-west more so than we have been lately. In my mind one of our poor performances in a while." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Need to know

Marner extended his point streak to six games (four goals, six assists). … Mikheyev has goals in three straight games. … Auston Matthews had two assists for his second straight multipoint game. The Maple Leafs center scored two goals in a 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. … Engvall has three points (one goal, two assists) in the past three games. … Mika Zibanejad's assist on Skjei's goal was his 100th in 231 games with the Rangers. He has seven points (four goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak.

What's next

Maple Leafs: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN360, SNO, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Rangers: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG, PRIME, NHL.TV)