Toronto @ New York preview
UBS Arena
Last Meeting ( Mar 21, 2023 ) Toronto 2, NY Islanders 7
Mathew Barzal had a good idea of how the Los Angeles Kings felt during the third period and overtime Saturday night.
He liked how he and his New York Islanders teammates finally felt a lot more.
The Islanders will look to build off a dramatic comeback win on Monday night, when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first meeting of the season between the Eastern Conference rivals.
Both teams were off Sunday after earning wins at home Saturday night. The Islanders handed the Kings their first road loss of the season when Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored 13 seconds into overtime to cap a comeback from a two-goal deficit and lift New York to a 3-2 win. The Maple Leafs blanked the Nashville Predators, 4-0.
The win was as much a deviation from the norm for the Islanders as the loss was for the Kings. Los Angeles set an NHL record by winning its first 11 road games and appeared primed to tie the all-time record -- held by the 2005-06 Detroit Red Wings and 2014-15 Minnesota Wild -- upon entering the third period with a 2-0 lead.
But the Islanders, who entered Saturday having been outscored 41-21 after the second period this season, began storming back thanks to captain Anders Lee, who forced overtime by scoring on a pair of rebounds at 11:18 to play and 4:11 left.
"They're probably over there right now shaking their heads," Barzal said.
Pageau then scored on the breakaway to give the Islanders just their third win beyond regulation this season. New York has suffered seven losses in the overtime or the shootout, including four in which it held a lead in the third period.
"It's massive -- going to go a long ways for this group," Barzal said. "Now we've got that belief that it doesn't matter who we're playing or what the score is. We can come back and get it done."
For Toronto, the shutout victory Saturday marked a rare game in which the outcome was lopsided. The Maple Leafs' previous eight games were all decided by one goal, a span in which they were 5-1-2.
More of the same appeared possible when the first period Saturday ended in a scoreless tie. But David Kampf and Auston Matthews scored within a four-minute span late in the second and Matthews scored with 3:11 left in the third before Noah Gregor added an empty-netter with 1:31 remaining.
"In the second period, especially, our game started to really come and I thought we really took care of the puck and made sure we just were wearing them down and not really let their game get started offensively," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
"I just loved our second period and that set us up for the third, which the guys took care of well."
The Maple Leafs outshot the Predators 18-5 in the third and 37-18 overall. Goalie Ilya Samsonov recorded his first shutout of the season for Toronto, which blanked an opponent on fewer than 18 shots for the first time since a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 28, 2014 when the Sabres had just 10 shots.
--Field Level Media