Milestone night for the Maple Leafs in victory over the New York Rangers
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The Maple Leafs won a hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
In the process, it became Milestone Night in Manhattan.
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The Leafs won their third game in a row, beating the New York Rangers 4-3. Toronto, which visits Nashville on Saturday, won its 20th road game of 2024-25.
Toronto kept pace with Florida atop the Atlantic Division. Both teams have 87 points with the Leafs win and a 1-0 victory by the Panthers in Columbus on Thursday.
More than a few Leafs will remember the night for more than just the final result.
Consider the following:
John Tavares had three points — two goals and an assist — to become the 68th player in National Hockey League history to record 1,100 points. Tavares’ third point, a second-period goal, enabled him to reach the mark. Tavares now has 485 career goals, moving him past former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler into 54th on the NHL career list. Tavares is the eighth active player to reach 1,100 points.
William Nylander reached 600 points for his NHL career when he assisted on Tavares’ goal in the first period. Nylander not only became the ninth player in Leafs history to record 600 points, he is the fastest active Swedish player to get to 600, eclipsing Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, who did it in 694 games. Nylander played in his 672nd game on Thursday.
Matthew Knies scored his 25th goal of the season, giving the Leafs a 4-2 lead at 14:26 of the second period. It’s the first time Knies has scored 25 goals, and we would bet a small fortune it won’t be the last 25-goal season in the NHL for the 22-year-old.
And defenceman Jake McCabe assisted on the first three Leafs goals, marking the first time in his 637 NHL games that he had three assists in one game. On 14 previous occasions, McCabe had two assists in one game.
The Leafs, who improved to 7-4-2 in the second game of back-to-back sets, didn’t have much fatigue after beating the Colorado Avalanche at home on Wednesday. After the Rangers erased a pair of one-goal Leafs leads, Toronto pulled away in the second on goals by Tavares and Knies.
Bobby McMann, who had a solid game on the Leafs’ second line with Tavares and Nylander, scored his 19th goal when he deflected a McCabe shot past Igor Shesterkin with 10 seconds remaining in the first period.
Goaltender Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves to win for the first time since Feb. 28, which also was a Leafs victory against the Rangers at MSG. Stolarz had lost his four previous starts.
Chris Kreider scored in the final minute for the Rangers. Will Borgen and Artemi Panarin also scored for New York.
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