Islanders lose to Leafs, are eliminated from playoff contention

TORONTO — The Islanders played with desperation right to the final buzzer.

But they could not stave off the inevitable.

Sunday night’s 4-2 loss to the postseason-bound Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena sealed their elimination from playoff contention as the regulation loss allowed the Capitals to clinch the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s disappointing for sure,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “We knew a couple of months ago that we had dug ourselves a hole and we were going to have to fight to the end to get ourselves out of it. Obviously coming up short, this really stinks. We expect a lot more of this group. It’s just frustrating.”

The Islanders (35-31-9), who had reached the NHL semifinals in the previous two seasons, could never recover from an early-season 0-8-3 slide that coincided with the start of the team’s COVID-19 outbreak. They will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and the first time under president and general manager Lou Lamoriello and coach Barry Trotz.

“It’s not the position that we expected to be in,” said Josh Bailey, who was credited with an unassisted goal to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead 31 seconds into the second period after Alexander Kerfoot swept the puck into his own net. “We expected to be a team fighting for the Stanley Cup. We’re just going to go out and make sure we try and end things on a good note.”

“It doesn’t really represent our group or the way we can play and the way we can compete,” said Anthony Beauvillier, whose power-play goal opened the scoring at 14:17 of the first period. “We built a good core. It’s disappointing for sure.”

Still, it wasn’t until David Kampf’s empty-netter with 8.1 seconds left in a wild third period that the Maple Leafs (50-20-6), now on a 10-1-1 streak despite missing 58-goal scorer Auston Matthews to a minor injury, sealed the Islanders’ fate.

“We knew what the odds were,” Trotz said. “We came to a realization a while ago but we just continue to play. We’ve had to make up a lot of games. It was five games a week for a number of weeks and the tanks are a little bit low. But at the same time, this group will play to the end.”

Trotz loaded up his top line in the third period with Mathew Barzal joining Brock Nelson and Anders Lee, and a brilliant Ilya Sorokin (33 saves), making a fourth straight start, was pulled with 2 1⁄2 minutes to go in regulation.

Sorokin made three saves as the top-rated Toronto power play had a two-man advantage that lasted one minute, 21 seconds early in the third period.

The Islanders, 14-7-1 since March 10, entered the season with Stanley Cup-or-bust aspirations after twice losing in the NHL semifinals to the eventual Cup champion Lightning, including a 1-0 loss in Game 7 last season.

But the Islanders never got closer to the Capitals than 11 points during their late-season push.

“No one’s going to quit because we’re officially out,” Pulock said.

The Maple Leafs’ Jack Campbell stopped 27 shots. Mitch Marner scored his fourth goal in three games against the Islanders this season to tie it at 1 at 17:31 of the first period.

Kerfoot fed Pierre Engvall on a two-on-one as the Maple Leafs again tied it at 2 at 10:49 of the second period.

William Nylander, left open in the left circle, scored a power-play goal that proved to be the winner at 13:20 of the second period.

“We gave them three gifts,” Trotz said. “We may as well have wrapped the first three goals they got. We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.