TORONTO — Nikolai Kulemin scored the shootout winner, Vesa Toskala turned aside all three New York attempts and the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled John Tortorella’s Rangers debut with a 2-1 victory Wednesday night.
Kulemin beat Henrik Lundqvist on Toronto’s first attempt in the tiebreaker.
Niklas Hagman scored in regulation for Toronto.
Wade Redden countered for the Rangers, playing their first game since Tortorella replaced Tom Renney as coach Monday — a day after Toronto’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
The most interesting moment in the first came a little over 6 minutes in when New York’s Markus Naslund and Toronto’s Ian White dropped the gloves for a brief fight. It was Naslund’s first fighting major since December 1993, when he squared off with Hartford’s Randy Cunneyworth during his rookie season.
Another long streak came to an end in the second period when Redden opened the scoring. The much-maligned defenseman beat Toskala with a long shot at 10:26, giving him his first goal in 58 games. Redden was one of New York’s prized offseason additions and will be one of the players Tortorella tries to spark over the final 20 games.
The game started to open up after the goal, with Toskala sprawling across his crease to stop a couple chances from Petr Prucha before Toronto’s Lee Stempniak hit the post at the other end.
Hagman tied it at 10:21 of the third, making a quick move coming out of the corner and beating Lundqvist to the glove side.
Notes: Mark Bell didn’t dress for the Rangers after being claimed
on waivers earlier in the day from Toronto … Boyd Devereaux was a healthy scratch for the Maple Leafs … Toronto’s John Mitchell and Jeff Finger left the game with upper-body injuries … Tortorella is the 34th coach in Rangers history.
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