Acciari scores late winner as Leafs beat Rangers

NEW YORK (AP) — Noel Acciari scored the go-ahead goal late in third period, Joseph Woll made 22 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in the season finale for both teams.

Acciari nudged the puck past goal Jaroslav Halak with 7:39 left to snap a tie and send the Maple Leafs into the playoffs with a 5-0-1 record in their last six games.

Rangers forward Filip Chytil appeared to tie the game with 1.9 seconds left, but officials ruled he kicked the puck into the net. Toronto thus held on to finish 50-21-11 for 111 points. The 24-year-old Woll improved to 6-1-0.

“It was a good third period for us to get a win,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “And Woll was excellent.”

Timothy Liljegren and William Nylander also scored for Toronto. Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers.

“I'm proud of the guys. They battled hard and played hard,'' Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. ”I'm happy with the way we finished."

Panarin put the Rangers up 2-1 with his 29th goal at 6:26 of the third with assists to Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad, but Nylander scored his 40th for the Toronto at 7:48. Panarin led the Rangers in scoring with 92 points.

The assist was the 60th of the season for Fox. He and Brian Leetch are the only two defensemen in Rangers history to have multiple 60-plus assist seasons. Fox had a career-high 63 assists last season.

Zibanejad's assist had him finish with a career-high 91 points, including 39 goals.

Kakko scored at 1:38 of the second as he beat Woll for his 18th with an assist to Vincent Trocheck.

Liljegren tied it at 3:09 of the third with his sixth.

The Rangers finished 47-22-13, third in the Metropolitan Division with 107 points and will face the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs. The series will start in Newark since the Devils finished second with 112 points. New Jersey had only 63 points a season ago.

“We've had our ups and our downs for sure. We know what we're capable of and we know what the goal is,'' Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “I like our team heading into the playoffs.”

The Rangers reached the Eastern Conference Finals last spring, beating Pittsburgh and Carolina before falling to Tampa Bay in six games.

“It's a new year, a new playoffs against a team that we didn't play last year,” Zibanejad said of the speedy Devils, who won 52 games this season. “We know what we have to do. We know what makes us successful ... They are fast team, they play fast. They punish you if you make mistakes in the neutral zone."

Toronto finished second in the Atlantic Division, good for home ice against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round. The Maple Leafs are making their seventh-straight playoff appearance, but haven't won a series since 2004.

“I like how our group has come together since the trading deadline,'' Keefe added. ”We've been a really consistent group."

NOTES: The Rangers were 36-12-8 overall since Dec. 5 and finished 23-13-5 at home. ... Seven Rangers (Adam Fox, Barclay Goodrow, Kaapo Kakko, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Jacob Trouba, Mika Zibanejad) played all 82 games, the third time since 1958-59 New York had seven or more players play every contest. … The Maple Leafs rested captain John Tavares and also scratched forward Sam Lafferty, defensemen Mark Giordano and Erik Gustafsson plus goaltenders Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov. The Rangers scratched defenseman Ben Harpur.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Vs. New Jersey in playoffs.

Maple Leafs: Vs. Tampa Bay in playoffs.

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