If Jonathan Bernier’s return to action were a play on Broadway, the show would have closed on opening night due to bad reviews. The Leafs goaltender remained winless(0-7-1) as Mats Zuccarello scored with 54 seconds left in regulation gave the New York Rangers a 4-3 victory at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.
“I cost the team two points tonight.” Bernier said of his 26-save effort after the game. “I know this team has been playing very good while I was hurt, but I let them down.”
Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Derick Brassard also scored for the Rangers, who have won nine games in a row and moved to the top of the Eastern Conference with a 14-2-2 record.
Peter Holland, Joffrey Lupul and Dion Phaneuf scored for Toronto, who fall to 5-9-4 with a loss that ended the club’s three-game winning streak.
The Leafs were competitive and bounced back throughout the game, responding to tie each time New York took the lead, but could not overcome fatal errors by Bernier, who allowed a second period goal from just over the red line and a big rebound on the game winner in his first start in 16 days.
“I actually thought we did lots of really good things. Obviously we’d love to have won the game. We didn’t do that.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said following the game. (We) gave up a goal late, which is disappointing. We fought back lots. It was a low event game. I didn’t think they got much, but in the end you’re always disappointed when you don’t get the job done.”
Babcock was not forgiving of the goaltender’s struggles and responded to media questions about Bernier by unequivocally stating that James Reimer would get the start in goal against Colorado on Tuesday.
“The bottom line is that we are in the winning business and you have to earn your own confidence.” Babcock said.
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The Maple Leafs have enjoyed some success the last couple weeks, but that pales in comparison to the red-hot Toronto Marlies, who came back from a four-goal third period deficit to win 9-8 in overtime over the Ice Caps in St. Johns on Saturday.
William Nylander and Josh Leivo each had four points and led the Marlies comeback after falling behind 8-4 and pulling starting goalie Antoine Bibeau, who allowed eight goals on 34 shots in his first start since being returned to the Leafs AHL affiliate on Thursday.
TJ Brennan, Mark Arcobello and Nikita Soshnikov staked Toronto to a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes before the Ice Caps rallied with five goals in the middle frame. After allowing two more goals within six seconds of each other in the opening minute, Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe replaced Bibeau with Garret Sparks and the change in goal changed the momentum of the game.
Arcobello scored his second of the game at 2:39 of the third, followed by two tallies from Leivo and Sam Carrick's marker at 14:53 to tie the game 8-8.
Nylander had three assists during regulation, but scored the difference maker at 1:15 of overtime, firing a wrister over the right shoulder of backup Eddie Pasquale for the victory.
Toronto is 11-3-1 on the season and has gone 5-1 in the first six games of their seven-game road trip, which ends in Rochester on Wednesday night.
With a four-point performance, Nylander has moved into a tie for second place in AHL scoring(19 points), one point behind Bridgeport's Joe Whitney, but the 19-year-old Swede has played two less games.
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