The Toronto Maple Leafs built a 3-0 lead and Joseph Woll made 40 saves in goal Wednesday night in a 4-3 victory over the visiting New York Rangers.
The Rangers trimmed the lead to one goal with two second-period power play goals and again cut the lead to one in the third period.
Jake McCabe, Nicholas Robertson, Dakota Joshua and John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won two straight. Matias Maccelli added two assists. Woll made sure the goals stood up with a season-high in saves.
Mika Zibanejad scored twice and Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who haven’t posted a win since March 14. Adam Fox added two assists. Igor Shesterkin stopped 14 shots.
McCabe was in the slot when he buried the rebound from Maccelli’s close-in shot at 5:15 of the first period.
Max Domi fed Robertson, who scored from the left circle at 12:08 of the first.
The Rangers, who had 10 shots on goal in a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Monday, had their 10th shot on goal on Wednesday midway through the first period. They had 14 for the period, four more than Toronto.
Joshua scored from the left circle at 5:41 of the second period on a pass from Maccelli to bump the lead to 3-0. Woll got the other assist.
Lafreniere scored from close range during a power play at 10:16 of the second. Simon Benoit was off for roughing.
Toronto’s Easton Cowan hit the post with a wrist shot at 14:20 of the second.
Zibanejad cut the lead to one when he scored from the bottom of the left circle during a power play at 18:01 of the second. Lafreniere found him with a pass from the right circle. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was off for slashing.
Domi’s shot clanked off a post at 5:43 of the third period.
Tavares scored unassisted from the right circle at 11:57 of the third period.
Zibanejad answered with a goal at 13:04.
Shesterkin was removed for an extra attacker late in the third.
