Engvall scores late, Islanders edge Maple Leafs to end 3-game skid

TORONTO -- Pierre Engvall scored the go-ahead goal with 2:02 remaining in the third period, and the New York Islanders recovered for a 3-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

Engvall, who was playing his first game in Toronto since being traded to the Islanders last season, put in a rebound in the slot after John Tavares tied it 2-2 for Toronto on the power play with 4:48 remaining.

Engvall had one point (a goal against the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 2) in his past 19 games.

“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.”

Mathew Barzal scored, Kyle MacLean scored his first NHL goal and Ilya Sorokin made 35 saves for the Islanders (21-17-12), who had lost three in a row and seven of eight (1-5-2).

“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.”

Tavares had a goal and an assist, and Mitchell Marner scored for the Maple Leafs (25-15-8), who had won three in a row and four of five. Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves.

“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.”

Barzal gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 10:31 of the first period, putting in a rebound from the slot with Samsonov out of position after Adam Pelech, who returned after missing one game with an upper-body injury, hit the post.

Marner scored 50 seconds into the second period to tie it 1-1. He took a pass from Tavares at the top of the right circle, skated to the right hash marks, and shot high glove during a 4-on-4.

MacLean put the Islanders back ahead 2-1 at 2:50. He scored on a breakaway after exiting the box for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, deking Samsonov and putting the puck past his outstretched left pad.

“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.”

MacLean is the son of Islanders assistant coach John MacLean, who had 842 points (413 goals, 429 assists) in 1,194 NHL games with the New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, New York Rangers and Dallas Stars.

“A cool situation,” Kyle MacLean said. “Maybe after the game here we will have a little bit of a moment.”

Keefe expressed frustration with a mistake from Timothy Liljegren, who allowed MacLean to get behind him for the breakaway coming out of the penalty box.

“It has nothing to do with it being this point in the year, this is the National Hockey League,” Keefe said. “That’s peewee 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.”

Tavares tied it 2-2 at 15:12 of the third period on the power play with a deflection of Morgan Rielly’s shot in the slot.

“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.”

NOTES: Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock returned after missing the previous 24 games with a lower-body injury. He had two shots on goal and was plus-1 in 20:15 of ice time. … It was MacLean's first NHL point in his sixth career game.