Woll makes 40 saves, Maple Leafs hand Rangers 6th straight loss

TORONTO -- Joseph Woll made 40 saves for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who handed the New York Rangers their sixth straight loss with a 4-3 win at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

“He just came up big and battled hard and continued to be really strong,” Maple Leafs forward John Tavares said about Woll. “I thought he controlled a lot of pucks where there wasn’t too many second and third opportunities… He did a really good job swallowing things up and deflecting things away from the net.”

Dakota Joshua had a goal and an assist, and Jake McCabe, Nicholas Robertson and Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (31-29-13), who are 3-2-1 in their past six, including a 4-2 win at the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Matias Maccelli had two assists, and Woll also had an assist. 

“The guys worked and competed and our goalie was really good and we executed on some plays and scored on a very good goalie, that’s the difference in the game,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said.

Mika Zibanejad scored twice, and Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and two assists for the Rangers (28-35-9), who are 0-5-1 during the losing streak. Adam Fox had two assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 14 saves.

New York was eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention. It marks the second-consecutive season of missing the playoffs after winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24.

“I told them after the game if we play like that with those intentions and that type of intensity, we are going to win games,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought we deserved a better fate tonight. It didn’t happen but I thought we played a pretty good game.”

New York captain J.T. Miller said: “I don’t know what to say, I don’t think anybody thought we’d be where we are right now eliminated with this many games left but that’s not where my mindset is now. “It (stinks), it’s the worst, you don’t want that but right now we are just worried about playing good hockey games to end the season and feeling good about our game going into the summer. We failed in reaching our goal this year. But right now we worried about playing a good game against Toronto and I thought we played a good game and gave ourselves a chance to win.”

McCabe put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 at 5:15 of the first period, collecting the rebound of Maccelli's backhander in the slot and snapping the puck past a sprawling Shesterkin.

Robertson made it 2-0 at 12:08. Max Domi carried the puck through the neutral zone and fed a backhand pass to Robertson, who slid a snap shot under Shesterkin’s right pad from the left face-off circle.

Joshua pushed the lead to 3-0 at 5:41 of the second period, burying a wrist shot from the left circle to the glove side.

“Obviously the season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to personally or as a team but it’s important to build some momentum here towards the end and feel good about your performances going to the end of the season,” Joshua said.

Lafreniere cut the deficit to 3-1 at 10:16 with a power-play goal. He accepted a Miller pass from the right corner on his backhand, switched to his forehand and flipped the puck past Woll's blocker from in tight.

Zibanejad brought the Rangers to within 3-2 at 18:01 while on the power play. Lafreniere sent a cross-ice pass to Zibanejad in the left circle, where he scored with a one-timer.

Tavares made it 4-2 at 11:57 of the third period. He forced a turnover in the defensive zone, skated the length of the ice and beat Shesterkin to the far side with a wrist shot from the right circle.

“Anytime you can beat Shesterkin clean, I think you’re pretty happy,” said Tavares, who extended his point streak to four games (three goals, three assists). “He’s a (heck) of a goalie. You see something and I just felt good on my shot. I didn’t sell the shot very well so I was able to not let him get super square and changed the angle just slightly at the end and got it loaded and shot it as well as I could have.”

Zibanejad scored his second goal to make it 4-3 just 1:07 later at 13:04, lifting a backhander over Woll's right pad as he drove the net off a saucer pass from Gabe Perreault.

“Obviously this is not what we wanted when we started the season, I don’t think any team wants this,” Zibanejad said of being eliminated from playoff contention. “It’s obviously tough but it hasn’t come as a surprise in terms of this happening, it was a matter of time looking at the standings doing the quick math but it still hurts. You play to win and we are in the situation we are in, it’s obviously a tough one.”

Adam Sykora, a forward who was selected by New York with the No. 63 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, was minus-2 and had three shots on goal in 13:33 of ice time in his NHL debut. 

“I thought he was great, thought he played really well,” Sullivan said. “His speed was evident, he made a couple nice wall plays, didn’t panic with the puck, made good decisions at the lines and didn’t force things that weren’t there. I thought he made an impact, I thought he had a really good game.”

NOTES: It was the first time the Maple Leafs had a multigoal lead in the first period since a 6-5 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on January 15.