NEW YORK: Mats Zuccarello scored the lone goal in the shootout, and the New York Rangers overcame another two-goal performance by Toronto’s Phil Kessel to beat the Maple Leafs 3-2 on Wednesday night.
The Rangers moved back into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
Zuccarello, called out before the game by Rangers coach John Tortorella to score more, connected in the second round of the tiebreaker against James Reimer. Henrik Lundqvist turned aside all three Toronto shooters, and the Rangers (20-16-4) moved into a flat-footed tie with the New York Islanders, who had claimed seventh on Tuesday.
The area rivals will meet Saturday on Long Island.
The Ottawa Senators also are even with the Rangers and Islanders with 44 points at the bottom of the East race.
Bruins 5 Devils 4: Gregory Campbell scored twice as visiting Boston moved one point ahead of idle Montreal into first place in the Northeast Division.
The Devils fell four points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference after the New York Rangers beat Toronto.
Boston led 4-0 in the second period before New Jersey began to chip away.
Patrik Elias and Travis Zajac scored later in the period before Andy Greene’s wrist shot 5:58 into the third brought the Devils within one.
Tyler Seguin stopped the surge 1:35 later by tapping home the puck to give Boston a 5-3 lead.
Canucks 4, Flames 1: Maxim Lapierre snapped a tie at 12:37 of the third period and Roberto Luongo made 40 saves in a surprise start as Vancouver began a five-game road trip with its fourth straight victory.
Alex Burrows, Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Northwest Division-leading Canucks. Luongo turned aside 18 shots over the final 20 minutes in his first start since March 18 as Vancouver moved six points ahead of Minnesota in the division.
Coyotes 3, Oilers 1: Boyd Gordon and David Moss each recorded a goal and an assist as visiting Phoenix extended its point streak against Edmonton to eight games (6-0-2).
Antoine Vermette also scored and Mike Smith made 29 saves for the Coyotes, who climbed within one point of idle Detroit for eighth place in the Western Conference.
Rookie Nail Yakupov tallied and Devan Dubnyk stopped 29 shots for the Oilers, who lost their fourth straight and remained four points behind the Red Wings.
Avalanche 4, Ducks 1: Jean-Sebastien Giguere burned his former team by turning aside 21 shots and Matt Duchene scored his team-leading 16th goal and added an assist as Colorado snapped a 14-game road winless skid (0-11-3).
Captain Gabriel Landeskog netted his third short-handed goal and John Mitchell and Jamie McGinn also tallied for the Avalanche, who posted their first victory away from the Pepsi Center since a 4-3 shootout win over Minnesota on Feb. 14.
Teemu Selanne’s 674th career goal at 11:16 of the second period was the lone blemish for Giguere, who slammed his teammates and questioned their focus following Monday’s 3-1 loss to Calgary.
