Mitch Marner scores in overtime to lift Maple Leafs over the Ranger for 3-2 win

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The statues on Legends Row outside Scotiabank Arena were frosted with wet white flakes on Wednesday. In a raging storm, anthem singer Natalie Morris was unable to reach the rink so organist Jimmy Holmstrom played The Star Spangled Banner and O Canada. The audience was sparser than usual due to the inclement weather but it was not enough to deter one fan who held up a sign to boast that he had travelled 16,661 kilometres from New Zealand to watch the Maple Leafs take on the Rangers.

It was a dandy of a game between two excellent Original Six teams – No. 621 between them dating back to Nov. 20, 1926 – and two standout goalkeepers.

In the end it was Toronto’s Ilya Samsonov who emerged with a 3-2 victory when Mitch Marner scored 19 seconds into overtime in a tightly played encounter on a night made for bobsleds and snow plows. Samsonov had 27 saves while Igor Shesterkin, last year’s Vezina Trophy winner, had 32.

Samsonov, who signed with Toronto in the offseason, is now 14-0-1 on home ice and 16-4-2 overall. It was his fourth start in a row, making it likely that Matt Murray will get the nod when the Ottawa Senators come to town on Friday.

“We believed in him, but nobody expects anybody to have a record like he has at home,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It is pretty rare.

“It was a tough game for him with an excellent goalie at the other end. The margin of error was very thin.”

Shesterkin dropped to 21-8-7 overall.

Toronto’s Pontus Holmberg scored on a break-away on the game’s first shot 2 minutes and 27 seconds after the opening puck drop to stake the home team to an early 1-0 lead. Holmberg flicked a backhand past Shesterkin from 20 feet out following a crisp pass from Joey Anderson. It was the Swedish right wing’s fifth goal of the season and his first since Jan. 7.

Each club failed on its lone power-play opportunity and New York held a 9-8 advantage in shots after the first 20 minutes.

Rangers’ centre Filip Chytil scored twice in the first six and a half minutes of the second period – first on a wrist shot off a faceoff and then from the right side of Samsonov after a nifty cross-crease pass from Kaapo Kakko. The goals were Chytil’s 14th and 15th of the campaign.

The period ended with New York ahead; by then Toronto was 0 for 3 on the power play and held a 22-20 advantage in shots on the net.

“The Rangers played us hard,” Keefe said. “Our guys just stuck with it. They played well enough to keep the game close.”

Timothy Liljegren fired home a rebound with 4:11 remaining in regulation time to tie it at 2-2. John Tavares nearly won it in dramatic fashion but had a shot bounce off the cross bar with one second on the clock.

William Nylander had an assist on Liljegren’s goal for the 400th point of his Toronto career. He has four goals and six assists over the last five games.

It was the second of three matchups between the clubs this season. Toronto lost the first 3-1 on Dec. 15 at Madison Square Garden. The teams meet again in New York in the final game of the regular season on April 13.

The Maple Leafs have a 19-3-4 record on home ice, currently the second-best home record in the National Hockey League. They improved to 30-11-8 overall and are a distant second in the Atlantic Division behind the Boston Bruins.

New York is 26-14-8 and third in the Metropolitan Division behind the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils.

The Rangers had won four of their last six, seven of their last 10 and had points in nine of their previous 11 games (7-2-2). Dating back to November 30, they had points in 19 of their last 24 contests (16-5-3).

In overtime, Marner broke in on Shesterkin and tucked the puck around him. It was Marner’s 18th goal, and Liljegren had an assist on it.

Despite the late heroics by others, the win was cleary earned by Samsonov.

“He battles hard,” Liljegren, the defenceman, said before an optional morning skate. “He doesn’t give up on any pucks. He has been great for us.”

Said fellow defenceman Mark Giordano: “When he is feeling it, Samsonov reads the play so well, you can just see it. It’s not just straight shots, it is deflections, tips, seeing plays. He is there before the puck gets there.

“It’s like with any player, goalies are the same – you can see that confidence and in a position that’s that important, when they have that confidence, the whole team feeds off it.”