Biron makes 24 saves and wins first start for Rangers

TORONTO - Martin Biron shows and breeds horses at his "Overtime Farms," but in his Rangers debut last night, he needed just 60 minutes to turn back the Maple Leafs, 2-1.

Biron made 24 saves to hand the Maple Leafs (4-1-1) their first regulation loss.

"We skated as hard as we've skated all year," said Biron, who was aided by 30 blocked shots and five effective penalty kills. Nonetheless, the 33-year-old made a critical stop on Kris Versteeg's breakaway late in the third period to preserve the one-goal lead.

"The puck bounced a little at the hashmarks," Biron said. "He took a shot and I was able to have the pad and glove there. Even then, with the back pressure our guys put on him, maybe he had to jump the gun."

Biron, who was 7-3-1 in his final 11 starts with the Islanders last season, was the Rangers' first free-agent signing July 1. To rest Henrik Lundqvist more, coach John Tortorella has planned for Biron, who has appeared in 463 NHL games, to start between 15 and 20 games.

Even with that experience, Biron confessed to "butterflies before the game . . . but you come in after the first and we're up 2-0. That definitely helps a lot. After that it was just about sticking to the routine and the game plan."

Like Biron, the Rangers (2-2-1) did almost everything well in the first 20 minutes, throwing 15 shots on Jonas Gustavsson, breaking up Leafs rushes in the neutral zone, blocking 13 shots and scoring twice in 1:01.

Derek Stepan shouldered around defenseman Francois Beauchemin in the right circle and his shot slid to the line, where it was poked in by Ruslan Fedotenko at 16:11 for his first goal as a Ranger. Then Michal Rozsival's tape-to-tape pass to Artem Anisimov from the right side to the doorstep extended the lead. It was Anisimov's second goal this season.

"Just one of those games where it's almost like a do-or- die situation," said Michael Del Zotto, who blocked seven shots (Dan Girardi had six). "We wanted to come out and take the crowd out of it. It was probably our best game of the year as far as being aggressive."

At 3:41 of the second period, Biron slammed the door on Mikhail Grabovski from point-blank range, then denied both Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel. It could have been 3-0 at the 10-minute mark, but Matt Gilroy's shot off the rush hit the crossbar and Alex Frolov couldn't cash in the rebound.

The Rangers held the Leafs shotless for nearly 10 minutes to begin the third, but Toronto halved the lead after Clarke MacArthur got past Girardi and Colby Armstrong knocked in the rebound at 11:04. However, the Rangers kept pressing.

"The biggest thing was not allowing them to build up the speed in the neutral zone," Ryan Callahan said. "It was a good joint effort, the 'D' stepping up and us coming back . . . It's only game five but you don't want to let too many games get away. We weren't playing our best the last couple games and coming on this road trip, we as a group said, 'Nip this in the bud now.' "

Notes & quotes: Rangers defenseman Steve Eminger (one assist, minus-2) was a healthy scratch for the first time this season . . . The Rangers outshot the Maple Leafs 32-25 . . . Fedotenko finished with a game-high five shots on goal . . . The Rangers were 0-for-2 on the power play . . . Callahan, still looking for his first goal, had four shots on goal, and four hits.