In Toronto, The visiting New York Islanders’ Pierre Engvall scored with two ticks more than two minutes left on the regulation clock in the third period to snap a 2-2 with the Maple Leafs and help send the Isles to a win by the same count.
“It felt really good,” Engvall said. “It was a close game all the way through, so to come out of the [NHL All-Star] break with a win, it’s a good feeling for us, really good. It was a great feeling. I haven’t scored for a while, so I’m not going to lie, it felt really good.”
Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves in the win.
The Islanders improved to 21-17-12, and snapped a three-game skid.
“What I loved the most is they scored that power-play goal to tie the game and our mindset was ‘Let’s go get that next one,’ so that pleased me a lot,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “To see our guys stay in the present moment and not change our game because we gave up a goal, it could have hurt us, made it a 2-2 game. But all night we played well defensively, we were quick on them.”
The Islanders grabbed a 1-0 lead midway through the opening stanza on a strike by Mathew Barzal.
Toronto got even when Mitch Marner potted a goal with 50 seconds gone in the middle frame.
The Maple Leafs dropped to 25-15-8.
“We played well enough to win the game, but we do just enough to lose,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The second goal, the third goal, those are gifts. You can’t give gifts when the goalie is playing the way he is at the other end. Goals are so hard to come by, you battle your way back to tie the game, you can’t do that if you want to win games.”
Kyle MacLean hit for his first career NHL goal two minutes after Marner scored to give the Islanders a 2-1 advantage.
MacLean had just exited the penalty box and scored off a breakaway.
“Yeah, I wasn’t really expecting it, but it bounced perfectly and found myself on a breakaway,” MacLean said. “A little bit of luck, but I didn’t really see it coming until it happened.
“It was just kind of a relief seeing it cross the goal line. It happened pretty quick so I kind of blacked out almost, but it’s definitely cool seeing it cross the line and then realizing you scored so it was special.”
John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs at 15:12 of the third period to tie the game, 2-2, and set up Engvall for his heroics.
“I thought we controlled play through major parts of the game and created a lot of good looks,” Tavares said. “I think we could have made it a little more difficult on Sorokin because I think he was clearly seeing it really well, and obviously he’s a really good goalie.”
Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves in the loss.
Keefe singled out Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren for a breakdown that led to the game-winner.
“It has nothing to do with it being this point in the year, this is the National Hockey League,” Keefe said. “That’s pee-wee stuff, it has nothing to do with [where we are at] in the season or anything like that. You play on the power play in the National Hockey League, they should not get behind you coming out of the penalty box
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