Maple Leafs vs Rangers: Stecher's Late Winner, Fourth Line Carries Toronto

Maple Leafs vs Rangers: Stecher wins it late

The Maple Leafs vs Rangers game on Oct. 22 at Scotiabank Arena ended 5-4 for Toronto, and it ended in the strangest way possible: with Troy Stecher, a depth defenceman on his seventh NHL team, ripping a shot over Dylan Garand's glove with fewer than 30 seconds left in regulation. Sources split on the exact clock (the Associated Press had 26.3 seconds remaining, NHL.com about 28), but nobody disputes the rest. The Leafs had pulled Sergei Bobrovsky on a delayed penalty, Morgan Rielly found Stecher, and the building went up.

The win is Toronto's third straight and moves the Leafs to 6-4-2. The Rangers fell to 7-4-1 and are winless in their last five road games (0-4-1). It also sends the Leafs west on a four-game trip with some momentum for the first time since the season opened.

What makes this one worth more than a highlight clip is how it was won. Auston Matthews did not score. William Nylander did not score. The fourth line scored twice, the third line once, and a defenceman who started camp fighting for a job scored the winner. That is a different team from the one that lost three straight before beating San Jose on Oct. 19.

How the scoring went

Toronto took the lead five times, and New York answered the first four before Stecher's goal stuck. Easton Cowan opened the scoring 1:36 into the first period, and Mika Zibanejad tied it by redirecting a Vladislav Gavrikov point shot. Teddy Blueger put the Leafs back in front at 10:01 of the first.

The middle stretch went back and forth. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Tye Kartye scored for the Rangers, Brandon Duhaime scored for Toronto, and Kirill Marchenko gave the Leafs a 4-3 lead on the power play at 19:09 of the second period, with Gavin McKenna and Nylander assisting. Alexis Lafreniere tied it 4-4 at 14:25 of the third with a shot from the blue line that went past Bobrovsky's blocker through traffic. Adam Fox had four assists for New York, including the primary on Lafreniere's goal.

Here is the box score at a glance for the players who decided it.

The fourth line carried Toronto

The line of Blueger, Duhaime and Zack MacEwen was the best Leafs line on the ice. Per Maple Leafs Hot Stove's game review, the fourth line scored the goals that made it 2-1 and 3-2, which means two of Toronto's four leads came from the line built to kill penalties and bang bodies. Duhaime's goal came off his own rebound and was his first in 66 games. Blueger had a goal and an assist. MacEwen, who came into camp off ACL surgery fighting for a roster spot (we covered that in our MacEwen camp preview), gave them the forecheck that kept the puck in New York's end.

This matters because the fourth line was supposed to be a problem spot. With John Tavares week-to-week and Dakota Joshua and Max Domi both on long-term injured reserve, Jim Hiller has had to build a bottom six out of what was left. Duhaime is on a three-year deal at $2.6 million and Blueger at $2.5 million, per our Leafs contracts page. On Thursday they played like the most efficient $5.1 million on the roster.

Our take: when Joshua is healthy, this trio has earned the right not to be the line that gets broken up. Hiller has been reluctant to shuffle lines that work, and this is a good place to keep that habit.

Stecher's night was not all highlight

The honest version of the winner is that Stecher was not having a good game before he scored it. The Leafs Nation's takeaways noted several turnovers, and Bobrovsky had to bail him out in the third period. Stecher entered the night with modest production, and Thursday was a reminder of what he is: a 32-year-old right-shot defenceman on a $1.35 million cap hit who plays hard minutes because Toronto's blue line needs bodies, not because he is a top-four answer.

Still, credit where it is due. Stecher pinched on the delayed penalty, found open ice and finished a shot most third-pair defencemen push wide. Hiller singled out Nick Paul's work keeping the play alive, and Paul did not even get a point on it.

Stecher's two-year deal, signed two days before free agency, looked like a depth move in June (our breakdown of the Stecher re-signing). With Chris Tanev and now Marshall Rifai both on injured reserve, it has become a necessity.

Bobrovsky and the third period

Bobrovsky stopped 21 of 25. That save percentage will not win awards, but the third period was the best Toronto has managed in weeks. The Leafs controlled shots and shot attempts after the intermission while protecting a one-goal lead, and the tying goal came through a screen from the point, not off a defensive breakdown.

The bigger worry remains the middle frame. Toronto has given up too much off the rush in second periods this season, a pattern we tracked in our second-period analysis. Four goals against on 25 shots, against a Rangers team that had been winless in its previous four road games, say the problem is not solved.

Matthews held in check, the kids were not

Garand made his biggest saves on Matthews, and the captain was kept off the goal sheet. That is notable only because Matthews had 18 points in 11 games coming in and has been the reason Toronto kept its head above water through the Tavares injury. We put his recent run in context in our Matthews 700-game analysis.

The young players picked up the slack. Cowan scored again, adding to a start that has made him close to untouchable in trade talks. McKenna assisted on the power-play goal that gave Toronto its last lead, and Marchenko kept up the scoring that has made the Knies trade look good early. The three of them, plus Bobrovsky, are the reason a team without Tavares, Tanev, Domi and Joshua has won three in a row.

What's next for the Maple Leafs

The Leafs now play four straight on the road: at Edmonton on Oct. 24, Calgary on Oct. 26, Seattle on Oct. 28 and Vancouver on Oct. 31. Three of those four are Stecher's former teams, and the trip opens against a red-hot Oilers team coached by Mike Babcock. We previewed that game in our Maple Leafs vs Oilers preview.

The defence is the concern. Rifai was placed on injured reserve after the Rangers game with a lower-body injury and is week-to-week, which leaves Toronto with six healthy defencemen heading west. Tanev and Tavares had no firm return date as of Thursday. Check the current NHL standings to see where three straight wins puts Toronto in the Atlantic, and expect the trade-market noise around John Chayka's search for a top-four defenceman to get louder if the injuries keep piling up.