Islanders win in Toronto, match season high with six goals

TORONTO – The goals flowed for the Islanders, who matched their season high of six as they simplified their play and rolled a balanced four lines. That ability to finish was envisioned when Anthony Duclair was signed in the offseason to be a top-line wing. Now, the production must remain consistent.

“We definitely have it in this room,” Bo Horvat said. “We can all put the puck in the net. It’s nice to finally get a full lineup back in.”

Duclair was activated off long-term injured reserve and returned to the lineup for Saturday night’s 6-3 win over the Auston Matthews-less Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. He missed 28 games with a lower-body injury believed to be a groin issue suffered on Oct. 19.

“We know we’re a good team,” said Duclair, who signed a four-year, $14 million deal and had two goals and an assist in five games before getting hurt. “We’ve had a couple of injuries and never really had a full lineup since the beginning of the season. A lot of adversity. Now that we’re all healthy and ready to go we’re trying to find our team chemistry as a whole.”

Horvat had a goal and two assists for the Islanders (13-14-7), who snapped a two-game losing streak to end their three-game road trip.

Duclair had an assist, setting up Isaiah George’s first NHL goal to make it 4-2 at 5:23 of the third period as the rookie defenseman – who grew up a Maple Leafs fan a half hour from Toronto and had “a lot” of friends and family in the building – also drew back into the lineup after two games as a healthy scratch.

“It was really special,” said George, who connected from the left circle for the winner and then was enveloped in a group hug. “In the moment, you’re kind of in the game. Once all the boys start getting excited, it really set in. You saw the guys’ reaction. They’ve been great teammates since I’ve been here.”

A sharp Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves as he matched his NHL career high with his 10th straight start, denying Ryan Reaves after he got in alone to the Islanders’ crease shortly after George’s goal. Joseph Woll stopped 28 shots for the Maple Leafs (21-11-2), who got two goals from William Nylander and who had won five of six following Friday’s 6-3 victory in Buffalo.

It was the first of three games between the teams in 13 days.

“I was extremely happy the way we played,” said coach Patrick Roy after the Islanders opened the scoring for the first time in nine games and had three goals in both the first and third periods. “We played a solid 60 minutes. We rolled the four lines. I thought everybody had a strong game. We had energy. I thought that was the difference in the third. We kept skating well. We were sharp on our details.”

Duclair skated on Brock Nelson’s left wing with Kyle Palmieri. Horvat centered Maxim Tsyplakov and Simon Holmstrom, Mathew Barzal was between Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Casey Cizikas was flanked by Kyle MacLean and Hudson Fasching.

Horvat set up Tsyplakov to open the scoring at 1:47 of the third period, then made it 2-0 on another odd-man rush at 4:48. Pageau deposited the rebound of Lee’s shot for a 3-1 lead at 5:43 of the third period. Defenseman Noah Dobson’s point shot made it 5-2 at 10:36 of the third period and Barzal’s empty-netter clinched it at 17:40.

“We stayed tight and didn’t really give them much late,” Barzal said. “I think the win was huge but the actual quality of it was more important.

“It might have been our best game of the season, definitely that I’ve played in.”
The Islanders had scored just nine goals in their previous four games and entered Saturday 29th in the 32-team NHL with 86 goals.

Notes & quotes: No penalties were called in the game … Defenseman Alexander Romanov’s two first-period assists marked his first multi-point game of the season … Maple Leafs associate coach Lane Lambert faced his former team for the first time since the Islanders fired him on Jan. 20 … Pierre Engvall, Matt Martin and defensemen Dennis Cholowski were the healthy scratches.

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.