Jimmy Vesey scores twice as Rangers top Maple Leafs for fifth win in a row

This was supposed to be a killer portion of the schedule for the Rangers, but instead, it’s given life to their season.

After going through a period where it seemed they couldn’t catch a break, where they kept finding ways to lose games, the Rangers came up on a gauntlet of games that featured the top team in the Western Conference, the Stanley Cup champions, the Metro Division leaders, and on Thursday, perhaps the hottest team in the league in the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And the Rangers won them all.

They beat the Maple Leafs, 3-1, at the Garden on the strength of another fine performance by Igor Shesterkin (22 saves) and two goals by Jimmy Vesey — a brilliant individual effort late in the second period to provide the winner, and an empty netter with 1:13 left in the game to seal it.

The win was the Rangers’ fifth in a row, while Toronto’s win streak was snapped at four. And Toronto forward Mitch Marner had his team-record consecutive games point streak also snapped, at 23.

“Since they’ve had their core together, they’ve been, every year, one of the top teams in the league,’’ Vesey said of the Maple Leafs. “It’s no different this year. They’ve been rolling, and it’s definitely a quote-unquote, ‘measuring stick’ game. We were feeling good about ourselves, too. So I think it’s a big win for us.’’

Gerard Gallant said, given the caliber of the opponent, and the way the Rangers were able to limit the chances of the high-flying Maple Leafs and hold them to 23 shots on goal, this was “definitely’’ one of the most significant wins the 16-10-5 Rangers have had this season.

“Toronto was on a roll, the way they were playing [9-0-1 entering Thursday], and for us to come in and — by no means did we shut them down, because they had some great chances and ‘Shesty’ had to make some great saves,’’ Gallant said. “But I thought it was back-and-forth chances. We had some great chances; they had some great chances from some of those top players, and I think PK did a great job against one of the best power plays in the league.’’

The Rangers killed all three Toronto power plays while scoring on their only power play early in the first period. The big surprise was that it wasn’t the first power-play unit that provided the goal, but the second unit, which got its first extra-man goal of the season, by Filip Chytil, at 3:52 of the first period.

Normally, the first power-play unit, with Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider, takes at least the first 90 seconds of each two-minute power play. But this time, Gallant took the first unit off and sent the second unit on with 59 seconds left in the power play.

“Finally,’’ Chytil said with a smile when asked about his unit’s extended look on the power play. “It took only 31 games [for the second unit] to score goal. But no, we have unbelievable first unit, so we have to be ready whenever we get there . . . It’s different. You can make some plays. You have more time to do something there. So I’m happy that we scored a goal.’’

Michael Bunting’s rebound goal at 14:06 of the first period tied it at 1, but Vesey put the Rangers ahead to stay when he and Trocheck broke up ice on a two-on-two and Trocheck passed to him on the right wing. As defenseman T.J. Brodie dropped to the ice to cut off the passing lane, Vesey pulled the puck past Brodie, got it on his backhand, then switched to the forehand and lifted it over Matt Murray (17 saves) for his fourth goal of the season, at 15:33.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.