Tortorella takes over behind the bench but slumping Rangers fall to Leafs in SO

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Game Information

Arena: Air Canada Centre Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Referees: Dan Marouelli, Dean Morton Linesmen: Michel Cormier, Tim Nowak

Attendance: 19,383 (103.1% full)

Team Stat Comparison
200	Goals	244
212	Goals Against	286
48	Power Play Goals	62
40	Power Play Goals Allowed	78
9	Shorthanded Goals	6
14	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	7
1199	Penalty Minutes	1125
15	Average Penalty Minutes	14

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD			NYR	TOR
No scoring this period			0	0
2ND PERIOD			NYR	TOR
10:26		Wade Redden (Power Play) Assists: Michal Rozsival, Chris Drury	1	0
3RD PERIOD			NYR	TOR
10:21		Niklas Hagman Assists: Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin	1	1
OT			NYR	TOR
No scoring this period			1	1
Shootout Summary
	Nikolai Kulemin shootout attempt against Henrik Lundqvist with a Wristshot results in a GOAL.
	Markus Naslund shootout attempt against Vesa Toskala with a Backhand results in a SAVE.
	Niklas Hagman shootout attempt against Henrik Lundqvist with a Backhand results in a SAVE.
	Chris Drury shootout attempt against Vesa Toskala with a Backhand results in a SAVE.
	Mikhail Grabovski shootout attempt against Henrik Lundqvist with a Wide of Net results in a MISS.
	Nikolai Zherdev shootout attempt against Vesa Toskala with a Wristshot results in a SAVE.

TORONTO -- John Tortorella kept his famous temper in check after a frustrating first game with the New York Rangers. He still made it perfectly clear that the players are going to be taken to task under the new regime.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'm a little concerned about the conditioning of the club," Tortorella said after the Rangers' 2-1 shootout loss to Toronto on Wednesday night. "I thought we looked tired in the third period. We're going to try and play an attacking style. We need to be in shape."

LeBrun: Clock Ticking

ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun writes that the New York Rangers don't have long to right the ship under new coach John Tortorella. LeBrun

Nikolai Kulemin scored the shootout winner, and Vesa Toskala turned aside all three New York attempts to spoil Tortorella's Rangers debut.

A Stanley Cup winner with Tampa Bay in 2004, Tortorella replaced Tom Renney on Monday -- a day after the Rangers' 3-2 overtime loss to Toronto at Madison Square Garden -- and has had had one full practice with the team.

"I think this was definitely a step in the right direction," goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. "We looked faster and had more energy. He told us to go after them more, take more chances to get our offensive game going a little bit."

While that translated into more scoring chances, the Rangers ran into a hot goalie in Vesa Toskala. He stopped 31 shots and turned aside all three attempts in the shootout, improving his record to 6-0-4 since Jan. 19.

Toskala has responded particularly well since returning from a week off. He's turned aside 102 of 107 shots during the three games since and the Leafs have earned five of a possible six points.

"He's been playing outstanding," defenseman Ian White said. "His last couple games he's pretty much single-handedly won us the games."

The shootout victory was just the third in 10 attempts for the Leafs this season. Kulemin beat Lundqvist on Toronto's first attempt, and Toskala took over from there.

Niklas Hagman scored in regulation for Toronto.

Wade Redden replied for the Rangers.

New York currently holds down sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, but is just three points up on ninth-place Carolina and four ahead of 10th-place Pittsburgh.

Fast Facts

• Nikolai Kulemin scored his first shootout-deciding goal as the Maple Leafs spoiled the debut of Rangers coach John Tortorella.

• The Rangers have not scored more than three goals in any of their last 17 road games, the longest streak for the team in 55 years. They also are winless in nine straight road games (0-7-2).

• Wade Redden scored the lone goal for the Rangers, his first goal since October 10 and his first on the power play since October 5. All three of his goals came in three different countries (Czech Republic, USA and Canada).

• Toronto improved to 3-7 in shootouts and won its second in seven tries at home this season.

-- ESPN research

Tortorella doesn't have much time to turn things around and admitted that he might not be able to do much about the players he thinks are out of shape.

"It's difficult during the season," he said. "We're 60-plus games in. I expect the team to be tired, all teams are tired at this time of year. I wouldn't say the whole team -- I have some concerns about a few guys.

"It's a tough way to play. You have to be in shape."

The coach even called a timeout shortly after Hagman tied it in the third period because he thought some of his defenseman needed a rest.

It was a tedious opening 20 minutes as both teams fumbled the puck around and failed to generate any top-quality scoring chances. The most interesting moment came a little over 6 minutes in when White and Markus Naslund dropped the gloves for a brief fight. It was Naslund's first fighting major since December 1993, when he squared off with Hartford's Randy Cunneyworth during his rookie season.

"It wasn't much of anything," White said.

Another long streak came to an end in the second period when Redden opened the scoring. The much-maligned defenseman beat Toskala with a long shot at 10:26, giving him his first goal in 58 games.

Redden was one of New York's prized offseason additions and will be one of the players Tortorella tries to spark over the final 20 games.

The game started to open up after the goal, with Toskala sprawling across his crease to stop a couple chances from Petr Prucha before Toronto's Lee Stempniak hit the post at the other end.

Hagman tied it at 10:21 of the third, making a quick move coming out of the corner and beating Lundqvist to the glove side.

"I'm not upset with the team," Tortorella said. "I just saw us sink a little bit in the third period. I just thought the play got taken to us in the third period.

"We want to finish [better in] games like that."

Game notes
All six replacement coaches this season have lost their debuts ... Mark Bell didn't dress for the Rangers after being claimed on waivers earlier in the day from Toronto ... Boyd Devereaux was a healthy scratch for the Maple Leafs ... Toronto's John Mitchell and Jeff Finger left the game with upper-body injuries ... Tortorella is the 34th coach in Rangers history.