Two tidy defensive efforts have resulted in consecutive road wins for the Toronto Maple Leafs this week.

Mats Sundin scored early in the third period to break a 1-1 deadlock and Andrew Raycroft held firm the rest of the way as the visiting Maple Leafs edged the New York Rangers 2-1 before a capacity crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

Alexei Ponikarovsky passes the puck in Wednesday's 2-1 Maple Leafs win.
(Frank Franklin II/Associated Press)

Sundin was sprung on a breakaway by rookie defenceman Ian White and beat Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist high to the glove side for his 20th goal of the season with 13:28 remaining.

"Once you give Mats a breakaway like that, he is pretty much golden," White said.

"There was a big hole up the middle and he made a great pass," Sundin noted.

Sundin played with Lundqvist on Sweden's gold-medal entry at the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games, so he knew to shoot rather than deke.

"I know him a little bit," Sundin said. "I know there's nothing on a deke [because] he really covers the net well."

Sundin has reached the 20-goal plateau in each of his 16 NHL seasons, including a franchise record 12 with Toronto.

Ron Ellis and Dave Keon accomplished the feat 11 times.

"It's a big part of my job," said Sundin, who has 516 career goals. "I get paid to be productive and score goals."

Alexei Ponikarovsky had the other goal in support of Raycroft, who stopped 37 shots as the Maple Leafs (25-21-6) earned their second win in as many nights.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Nik Antropov scored twice in the third period as Toronto toppled the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1.

The back-to-back wins lifted the Maple Leafs into a seventh-place tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings.

Shanahan steamed

Brendan Shanahan opened the scoring in a losing cause for the Rangers (25-22-4), who were 18-4-1 mark when scoring first.

But Shanahan seemed more upset by the lack of respect accorded captain Jaromir Jagr by NHL officials.

"The referees just seem to have a different set of rules about the way people get to play against him," Shanahan argued. "Not since [Viacheslav] Fetisov came over from Russia have I seen a star player get ignored by the referees, and I know the reason why they were ignoring him back then."

"I didn't think the game was called any different than games are called every night," countered Mike Murphy, the NHL's senior vice-president of hockey operations. "Jagr is a player that does get identified by the other team.

"I know the Leafs used Hal Gill against him and Hal is a big strong guy. He is able to use his size and strength to eliminate Jagr in many different ways.

"They know Jagr is a key performer on the Rangers. But teams are allowed to play against him in a legal fashion."

"It's not just tonight's refs, it's every night," Shanahan lamented. "I have played with other superstar players and they get a whole lot more respect than this guy and I am trying to eliminate the reasons why that's the way it is."

Scores off skates

After a scoreless first period in which New York outshot Toronto 13-7, Shanahan tallied a power-play goal that required video review.

Shanahan was jostling for position near the crease when Jaromir Jagr's slapshot caromed off his left skate and by Raycroft at 12:07 of the second period.

It was Shanahan's team-high 26th goal of the season.

Ironically, Ponikarovsky evened proceedings 87 seconds later by banking a shot off the skate of Rangers defenceman Aaron Ward for a power-play goal, his 13th.

Sundin and Tomas Kaberle drew assists.

"I wasn't facing the play," Ward said. "I was unlucky."

Toronto continues to excel on the road, going 6-1 in its last seven road games and 14-9-3 overall compared to just 10-10-3 at the Air Canada Centre.

With files from Sports Network