TORONTO _ Saturday nights in Canada have been good to the Rangers this season.
Already they've won in Ottawa and Montreal. On Saturday, they cooled down the Maple Leafs, who had won six straight.
Tony DeAngelo's goal 52 seconds into overtime did the job for the Rangers, giving them a 5-4 win over Toronto and allowing them to win two games in a row for the first time since Nov. 23-27. Hometown boy Ryan Strome, who grew up in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ontario, had two goals and an assist. He put the Rangers in position to win in regulation before Auston Matthews' second goal of the game _ a one-time shot that deflected off the stick of Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren _ tied the score at 4 with 53 seconds left in regulation.
With Brendan Lemieux out with a broken hand, Brett Howden _ who had played the previous three games at right wing _ got the chance to take Lemieux's spot on the left wing of the third line, with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko. And Howden put the Rangers on top at 1:41 of the first period, when he came off the bench on a line change, skated directly to the slot, took a pass from Strome and beat Frederik Andersen for his fifth goal of the season and second in the last four games.
Toronto quickly tied the score, though, on a power-play goal by William Nylander at 4:21. With Jacob Trouba in the penalty box, serving a high-sticking penalty, and Brendan Smith _ a fourth-line forward who plays defense on penalty kills _ not in the lineup, Rangers coach David Quinn sent Adam Fox out on the second shift of the penalty kill. Fox, who plays on the power play but not the penalty kill, made a mistake when he vacated the front of the net to chase John Tavares, who had the puck behind the net. But Tavares reversed course and sent a pass up the high slot for Nylander, who snapped it home against Alexandar Georgiev for his 16th goal of the season.
But Strome regained the lead for the Rangers less than four minutes later, largely due to a brilliant play by his linemate, Artemi Panarin. He stole Pierre Engvall's ill-advised pass across the slot for Cody Ceci and got the puck to Strome at the bottom of the right circle. Strome made it look easy as he skated across the slot and slipped a backhander past Andersen at 7:59.
Pavel Buchnevich, scoreless in three games since he broke a nine-game scoring drought with a goal and an assist against the Maple Leafs at the Garden on Dec. 20, had a chance to put the Rangers up 3-1 at 11:28 of the first period after he was awarded a penalty shot when Toronto defenseman Tyson Barrie hooked him down to the ice from behind while he was on a breakaway. But Buchnevich's attempt to shoot the puck between Andersen's pads was easily saved by the goaltender.
Strome, though, stunned the crowd when he beat Andersen with a slap shot off the wing, from the top of the right circle, at 4:37 of the second period for a 3-1 lead. It was his 10th goal of the season. Panarin was credited with the primary assist on the goal, giving him 50 points (21 goals, 29 assists) on the season, in his 38th game.
Matthews' 25th goal of the season, at 7:48 of the second period, brought Toronto back within 3-2 before Mika Zibanejad scored his 15th goal at 17:05 of the period to push the Rangers lead to 4-2. Pierre Engvall's deflection goal early in the third period, though, cut it to 4-3.
