Maple Leafs rally for shootout win against Islanders

TORONTO-- Auston Matthews scored the tying goal late in the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout at Air Canada Centre on Thursday.

Matthews tied it 3-3 with 3:29 left in the third period when he deflected a shot from Jake Gardiner off the skate of Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy.
WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Mitchell Marner and Morgan Rielly scored, Tyler Bozak scored the only shootout goal, and Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for the Maple Leafs (38-20-5), who have won eight home games in a row.

Toronto, which has won 12 of its past 14, trails the Boston Bruins by one point for second place in the Atlantic Division; Boston holds five games in hand.
"We won the game [tonight], that's it," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "We've played real well here of late, worked real hard and been real organized and I think done things right. We got out of it here [tonight] and have to get back on it tomorrow, obviously. But it's good, you want the other team to look at [your home record] when they come in and say, 'Hey, it's going to be a tough night.' Normally we play like that; we didn't tonight, though."
Mathew Barzal had a goal and two assists, Ryan Pulock and Jordan Eberle scored, and Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves for the Islanders (29-26-7), who are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"They're lethal every shift, so you have to score against those guys to beat them," Barzal said. "Overtime was pretty back and forth, a lot of good saves by both goalies. It was unfortunate we couldn't score and [lost] that extra point. It [stinks] right now, especially at this time, but I liked our game. I thought we played really well."

Matthews left the game with 1:06 remaining after taking a hit from Adam Pelech and Cal Clutterbuck. Babcock provided no update on Matthews' condition after the game, saying, "I don't know. We'll know in the morning."
It is the ninth time Toronto has won at least eight home games in a row, the first since winning nine straight from March 6 to April 7, 2007. Toronto is 21-8-2 at home this season.
"So far we've been good [at home]," said Andersen, who has won six of his past seven starts. "Obviously we knew given the road schedule in the beginning that we'd have some stretches here we could really take advantage of, and I think we've been doing all right so far."
Eberle gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead at 3:07 of the third when his centering pass went off the skate of Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev. The Maple Leafs tied it 2-2 at 1:28 of the third when Rielly took a pass from Connor Brown.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 8:39 of the first period when Pulock scored with a slap shot from the blue line. Barzal made it 2-0 3:06 later when he put in a rebound. Marner scored at 17:39 to make it 2-1 when he took a cross-ice pass from Nazem Kadri.
"That's a good team over there, that's a tough building to play in, they're rolling, but we were the better team tonight, I don't care who was watching the game," New York coach Doug Weight said. "Not that it was lopsided, but I felt that we deserved better."

Goal of the game

Matthews' goal with 3:29 left in the third period.

Save of the game

Andersen's save on Barzal 1:07 into overtime.

Highlight of the game

Eberle's goal at 3:07 of the third period.

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They said it

"We weren't shy to push the pace early, and Clutterbuck and [Casey Cizikas were] finishing checks early and setting the tone for the rest of us. I thought we played a pretty good game, I thought that first period was one of our best periods in a while. That's a great team over there, one of the best teams in the League, and we hung right in there." -- Islanders forward Mathew Barzal
"He's unbelievable at it. He always talks and jokes about how good he was at it back in the day. He still hasn't lost that touch. He's been great for us in that category, but I mean, I think we have to try and stop going that route. Thank God we've got him or we might be in trouble." -- Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner on Tyler Bozak, who has scored on four of five shootout attempts this season

Need to know

Kadri's assist on Marner's goal was his 300th NHL point, becoming the 35th player to score that many for Toronto. He has 134 goals and 166 assists in 469 games.

What's next

Islanders: At the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (6:15 p.m. ET; MSG+, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: Host the Boston Bruins on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, NESN, NHL.TV)