TORONTO _ They love John Tavares up here in Toronto. The ex-Islanders captain, who signed with his boyhood team as a free agent last summer was all over the video board when the Maple Leafs took on the Rangers Saturday night in Scotiabank Arena. There he was scoring goals in a promo encouraging Leafs fans to vote for Toronto's players for the All-Star game, there he was talking about how special it was watching the Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada as a boy; there he was talking about his favorite rock bands, his favorite non-hockey athlete (his uncle John, the lacrosse player, of course) and all kinds of other favorites.
No doubt, the Rangers were one of his favorite opponents when he was with the Islanders, and in his first game against them as a Maple Leaf, Tavares had two assists and linemate Mitch Marner had two goals to lead the high-flying Leafs to a tough 5-3 victory over a game Rangers squad, led by backup goaltender Alex Georgiev.
The Rangers, who scored twice in the third period to cut the deficit to one before Marner's empty-netter finally sealed it, close out the pre-Christmas schedule Sunday night at the Garden against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Rangers coach David Quinn had said Friday that he would split the two weekend games between his two goaltenders, but he didn't reveal which goalie would play in which game. Given the relative strength of the Maple Leafs, as compared to that of the Flyers (14-16-4), the decision to play Georgiev certainly looked, from the outside, like a business decision to save Henrik Lundqvist for Sunday in a game the team might have thought was more, um, "winnable."
Quinn, who had spoken after practice Friday about the excitement of playing in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada, addressed the decision by saying, "Georgie had a real good night the other night (a 14-save performance in the 3-1 win over Anaheim Tuesday), and this gives Hank a little bit of extra rest, (and) gives Hank a chance to play another home game."
Georgiev's night got off to an inauspicious start when he was beaten on Patrick Marleau's deflection goal just 2:58 into the game. Morgan Rielly's left point shot was going in one direction and Marleau sent it the other for the Toronto forward's 10th goal of the season.
But after that, Georgiev was solid. He made 14 saves in the first period _ as many as he made in Tuesday's 3-1 win over Anaheim _ as the Rangers were outshot, 15-10. And when defenseman Adam McQuaid took two penalties early in the second period, and the Rangers had to play shorthanded for four minutes, he stood tall as the Rangers killed both penalties.
The Rangers then tied the game on a slap shot by Neal Pionk at 15:00 of the second that got through traffic and beat Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen for his fifth goal of the season.
Marner fired a shot that deflected in off teammate Andreas Johnsson to put the Leafs back in front at 1:37 of the third period _ Tavares got an assist on the play _ and Morgan Rielly scored on a wrist shot from the slot to make it 3-1 at 5:26. But the Rangers fought back and cut it to 3-2 when Filip Chytil dipsy-doodled his way past a Leafs defender and got a bad-angle shot off that Anderson saved. But Kevin Hayes jammed in the rebound for his 10th goal of the season, extending his point-scoring streak to six games.
Marner's first goal made it 4-2, but Marc Staal scored on a long shot through traffic to pull the Rangers within 4-3 with 3:41 remaining.
