Mats Sundin’s breakaway goal snapped a thirdperiod tie and lifted the surging Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2–1 victory over the Rangers last night.

Sundin, who also assisted on Alexei Ponikarovsky’s tying power–play goal in the second period, hit the 20-goal mark for the 16th straight season — every one spent in the NHL. That was enough to give the Leafs their fifth win in six games, including four on the road.

Brendan Shanahan scored for New York, which had a two-game winning streak broken. The Rangers and Maple Leafs entered tied for ninth in the Eastern Conference, but Toronto — which had a vocal band of supporters in the stands — jumped into a three-way deadlock for seventh.

Andrew Raycroft, in his 13th straight start, made 37 saves as Toronto improved to 2–0 on its fivegame trip one night after winning at Carolina. Shanahan nearly tied it with under 5 minutes left, but Raycroft stopped him at the left post.

New York’s hopes of getting even were dashed when Matt Cullen took a holding penalty with 1:25 left.

Sundin made the biggest play of the night, taking a long feed from defenseman Ian White after a blocked shot in the Leafs zone. The Toronto captain came in alone on Henrik Lundqvist, his Olympic gold-medal winning teammate from last year’s Turin Games, and snapped a shot into the top right corner at 6:32.

Lundqvist was sharp again in making 26 saves. He allowed nine goals in seven games, but is 3–4 in that span.