New York Rangers 2, Toronto Maple Leafs 1 (Game No. 5, Away Game No. 3)
* The Rangers defeated the Maple Leafs, 2-1, tonight at Air Canada Centre, tallying two goals in a 61-second span of the first period to snap a three-game winless streak. The Blueshirts improved to 2-2-1 (five pts) overall, including a 2-1-0 mark on the road.
* Goaltender Martin Biron stopped 24 of 25 shots while making his Rangers debut, after dressing as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup in each of the first four games of the season. Biron turned aside each of his first 21 shots faced through the game’s opening 51:04.
* Ruslan Fedotenko opened the game’s scoring with his first goal as a Ranger at 16:11 of the first period, and registered a game-high, five shots.
* Artem Anisimov notched a goal, his second of the season, just 61 seconds after Fedotenko’s opening goal, and registered three shots and three hits in 16:01 of ice time.
* Defenseman Michal Rozsival tallied the primary assist on Anisimov’s game-winner at 17:12 of the first period. He also registered five blocked shots and three hits in 24:00 of ice time.
* Ryan Callahan also assisted on the game winning goal, and is now one point shy of 100. Callahan led all skaters with four hits, and recorded four shots and two blocked shots in 21:42 of ice time.
* Rookie Derek Stepan registered the only assist on Fedotenko’s first period goal and logged 17:26 of ice time. Stepan has now recorded an assist in each of the last two games.
* The Blueshirts blocked 30 shots in the contest with 14 of the Rangers’ 18 skaters recording at least one blocked shot led by Michael Del Zotto’s game-high, seven blocked shots. Del Zotto also registered three shots and three hits in 25:47 of ice time.
* Dan Girardi blocked six shots, registered three shots and three hits, and led all skaters with 26:25 of ice time.
* The Rangers’ practice schedule for tomorrow, October 22, is 11:00 a.m. at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
* New York will return to action on Saturday, October 23, when they will travel to Boston to face-off against their Original Six rival, the Bruins, at TD Garden (7:00 p.m.) to begin their first of 18 back-to-back sets on the season. The game will be broadcast live on MSG Network and can be heard on 970 The Apple.
