TORONTO — William Nylander and Mitchell Marner each scored as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Islanders 4-2 without Auston Matthews on Sunday night.
The Toronto win sets a franchise record for both wins (50) and points (106) in a season.
Pierre Engvall also had a goal for Toronto (50-20-6), while Jack Campbell 28 saves to pick up the win.
Anthony Beauvillier scored the first goal of the game when he beat Campbell on the power play in the first period. Josh Bailey also was credited with a goal for the Islanders (35-36-9), even though the goal was directed into the Toronto net by Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot.
The loss eliminated the Islanders from playoff contention.
Campbell stood strong in the last five minutes of the third period as the Islanders pushed hard for the tying goal before David K?mpf scored an empty-netter with 8.1 seconds left to go to seal the historic win.
The Leafs took a few minutes to get their footing as head coach Sheldon Keefe tried some new line combinations as the team begins to gear up for the post-season.
The Islanders opened the scoring partway through the first period, as Beauvillier scored his 12th goal of the season with the man advantage. The Leafs were able to match just three minutes later, however, as Marner stayed hot with his 34th goal of the season, and his 26th in his last 40 games. The Leafs winger potted a rebound off a sharp-angled Mark Giordano shot to tie the game at just three minutes and change after Beauvillier opened the scoring.
The second period got off to an inauspicious start for Toronto as Alex Kerfoot put the puck into his own net just 31 seconds after the middle frame got underway.
Kerfoot, who was trying to knock the puck off of Islanders winger Josh Bailey’s stick, ended up pushing it under Jack Campbell’s pad to give the Islanders a one-goal lead once again. Bailey ended up with credit for the goal, his 11th of the year.
The Leafs rallied back once again, though, as Kerfoot made up for his mistake just ten minutes later by feeding Pierre Engvall on a well-executed two-on-one rush. Engvall made no mistake and tied the game at two apiece before his Swedish countryman Nylander put Toronto on top less than three minutes later.
Nylander’s power-play marker, his 31st of the season, put Toronto up for the first time in the game more than halfway through the second period.
