TORONTO -- Henrik Lundqvist regained his puck-stopping touch on Thursday night and the New York Rangers played more effectively in front of him.

The result was a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Lundqvist turned aside 23 shots, some of them difficult, as the Rangers ended a three-game losing streak.

"It's just one game but it's something to build off," Lundqvist said. "You take it one by one, that's all you can do. It hasn't been fun the last few days, I'm not going to lie. But I worked hard in practice."

Lundqvist's recent struggles reached a peak on Tuesday when he allowed seven goals in two periods and was replaced in the third period in a 7-6 loss to the Dallas Stars.

"Everybody in that room has a lot of confidence in Hank (Lundqvist) and it was only a matter of time," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.

It was not all Lundqvist and his teammates did their part Thursday by playing a more structured game and playing with more urgency.

"Yeah, we knew we didn't want to get in a bigger slide than we already were in," said Michael Grabner, who scored a short-handed goal and an empty-net goal, both in the third period.

Brady Skjei had a goal and assist and Pavel Buchnevich and J.T. Miller each had added a goal for the Rangers (29-16-1).

Tyler Bozak and Zach Hyman scored for the Maple Leafs (21-14-8). Frederik Andersen made 36 saves for Toronto, which won its previous three games.

"We weren't very good," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "We didn't skate (Wednesday) so we should have been fresh and we should have had jump. Obviously we shouldn't have done that, we weren't mentally sharp."

"I thought we did what we had to do in the three periods to play a strong game and Hank gave us some timely saves and that was certainly good for momentum on our part," Vigneault said. "We tried to work a little bit better in front of Hank. Hank made some saves that gave the whole team confidence."

The Rangers took a 3-2 lead into the third period and increased the margin on short-handed goal by Grabner at 14:57. Grabner's first goal of the game came with New York's Oscar Lindberg serving a tripping penalty.

Grabner scored into an empty net at 17:03, his 21st of the season.

Skjei scored his second goal of the season on a wrist shot from the upper slot at 6:42 of the first period, set up by pass from Mats Zuccarello, and New York led 1-0.

The Maple Leafs tied the game at 10:16 on the 11th goal of the season by Bozak, who was in the low slot when be converted a pass from Mitch Marner.

The Rangers regained the lead on the sixth goal of the season by Buchnevich at 14:44 of the first after a scramble around the Maple Leafs net. The puck was kicked toward the goal but Buchnevich then directed the puck into the net with his stick so the play stood after a review.

Miller's 15th goal of the season, on a shot from the right faceoff circle at 9:02 of the second period, put New York up 3-1. It came on the counter after Marner broke in alone on the Rangers' goal and had his backhander slip wide of the right post.

The Maple Leafs scored while short-handed at 16:02 of the second when Hyman took the puck off Rangers defenseman Adam Clendening near the net and scored his sixth goal of the season. It came with 10 seconds left in a slashing penalty to Toronto defenseman Frank Corrado.

"We've got to start stronger," Hyman said. "We weren't on top of their D, they had a lot of shots on Freddy (Andersen) -- Freddy kept us in the game for most of the game there. We've just got to be better. We've got to be better on the forecheck, get pucks back and just play better on the cycle."

NOTES: Toronto D Morgan Rielly (lower-body injury) left the game Tuesday in the first period after falling awkwardly on his right knee and did not play Thursday. He is listed as day-to-day. D Frank Corrado took Rielly's roster spot and played in his second game of the season for the Maple Leafs. ... Rangers RW Jesper Fast (upper-body injury) will miss one week to 10 days, according to the team. ... New York LW Chris Kreider was fined $5,000 by the league for hitting Dallas Stars C Cody Eakin with his own helmet during a fight in the Rangers' 7-6 loss on Tuesday. ... The Maple Leafs play the third game of four in a row at home Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. ... The Rangers play their next game Sunday, when they visit the Detroit Red Wings