Nik Antropov's natural hat trick propelled the Toronto Maple Leafs past the stumbling New York Rangers 6-2 on Thursday night.

Antropov scored a power-play goal 5:11 into the second period to break a 2-2 deadlock, and increased Toronto's lead to 5-2 on goals at 16:40 of the second and 3:34 into the third.

Nik Antropov scores on Stephen Valiquette in a 6-2 Leafs victory.
(Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)

It marked Antropov's first NHL hat trick since Dec. 20, 1999.

"Almost exactly eight years," he said. "I remember it, though."

Antropov tallied three times on three shots, giving him five goals in three games and 14 overall, tying him for the team lead with captain Mats Sundin.

"I didn't think about it a lot," Antropov said. "I did pretty much everything the same."  

Sundin, Matt Stajan and Alex Steen had one goal and one assist apiece for the Maple Leafs (12-11-6), winners of four straight games.

Alexei Ponikarovsky and Hal Gill each provided two assists, and Vesa Toskala turned aside 23 of 25 shots.

Toronto's offence, though, mustered only 15 shots, one fewer than in Monday's 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators.

"Obviously, we would like to get more than we had these last two games," captain Mats Sundin said. "We've got to produce more shots than 16 if we want to be successful.

"But at least, we're not giving up the high quality scoring chances. Not too many, anyway."

Daniel Girardi and Fedor Tyutin had power-play goals 2:34 apart in the first period for the Rangers (15-11-2), losers in four of their last seven outings.

Chris Drury and Scott Gomez earned assists on both goals.

"You always feel good about yourself when you come from behind and tie the game," Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr said. "But it didn't help us much."

"We know we didn't play very well."

Henrik Lundqvist gave up four goals on 10 shots before being pulled in favour of backup Stephen Valiquette, who finished with four saves.

"I know I have to play better," Lundqvist said. "The first one was a bad rebound.

"The other three were not bad goals. I need to work harder in practice and get my game back."

Toronto plays host to the Boston Bruins on Saturday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).

With files from the Canadian Press