Toronto Maple Leafs lay a beating on New York Islanders 7-1

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Toronto Maple Leafs lay a beating on New York Islanders 7-1. Here is the game summary and highlights from the game played on Tuesday, February 14, 2017

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

Frederik Andersen stopped 33 shots in the win. The Maple Leafs are 12-1-2 when Andersen stops 30-39 shots this season. Tonight’s win is the 100th NHL win of Andersen’s career.

Josh Leivo opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs at 11:36 of the first period and added assists on Auston Matthews’ third period power play goal and Matt Hunwick’s third period goal. Tonight’s game is the first multi-point game of Leivo’s NHL career. He had five goals in 12 games with the Maple Leafs in 2015-16.

Nazem Kadri made it 2-0 for the Maple Leafs at 19:28 of the first period. The goal was the 21^st of the season for Kadri, which is a new career-high. Kadri later added an assist on William Nylander’s second period goal. Tonight’s game is the ninth multi-point game of the season for Kadri.

William Nylander registered the secondary assist on Kadri’s goal and later added Toronto’s third goal of the night at 9:26 of the second period. Tonight’s game is the seventh multi-point game of the season for Nylander. He now has four points (1-3-4) vs. the Islanders this season.

Auston Matthews scored Toronto’s fourth goal of the game at 5:41 of the third period on the power play and added his second of the night at 11:51 of the third period. Matthews has four goals in his last five games.

Tyler Bozak scored his 14^th goal of the season at 7:16 of the third period. Bozak has four points (1-3-4) in his last five games.

Matt Hunwick scored his first goal of the season at 15:40 of the third period. Hunwick had two goals for Toronto in 2015-16.

Nikita Zaitsev picked up the primary assist on Kadri’s goal. Zaitsev leads Maple Leafs defencemen in assists this season (24).

Roman Polak notched the secondary assist on Nylander’s goal. The Maple Leafs are 4-1-1 this season when Polak records a point.

Leo Komarov recorded his ninth assist of the season on Matthews’ third period power play goal. The Maple Leafs are 10-3-2 when Komarov registers a point this season.

James van Riemsdyk had the primary assist on Tyler Bozak’s third period goal and now 19 points (6 goals, 13 assists) in 20 games since Jan. 1.

Mitch Marner picked up the secondary assist on Bozak’s third period goal. Marner leads the Maple Leafs in assists (33) this season.

Connor Brown earned the lone assist on Matthews’ second goal of the night. Brown has three points in his last six games.

Ben Smith registered the secondary assist on Hunwick’s third period goal. Smith has recorded all four of his points on home ice this season.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs outshot the Islanders by a 41-34 margin in all situations and by a 31-20 margin at 5-on-5.

Toronto had a 67-56 lead in shot attempts in all situations and a 54-39 lead in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

Auston Matthews led Toronto with seven shots on goal and nine shot attempts.

HOME SWEET HOME

The Maple Leafs are 14-9-4 at home this season and 9-2-2 in the first leg of back-to-backs.

Toronto’s all-time record is of 69-65-7-10 in 151 games against the Islanders and 40-29-4-4 in games played in Toronto.

Toronto is 18-10-5 against the Eastern Conference this season and 6-5-3 against the Metropolitan Division.

Tonight’s attendance was 18,956.

The Maple Leafs wrap up their back-to-back tomorrow night (Feb. 15) in Columbus.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

The Maple Leafs were 4-for-4 on the penalty kill tonight and 1-for-3 on the power play. Toronto is 10-8-6 when scoring a power play goal this season and 18-7-4 when not allowing a power play goal.

Toronto is 21-5-5 when scoring first.

The Maple Leafs are now 18-1-5 when leading after a period and 21-1-7 when trailing after two periods this season

Toronto has a 9-11-6 record when outshooting their opponent.

Seven Maple Leafs skaters registered three or more shots in tonight’s game.

Matt Hunwick was a game-high plus-4.

Ben Smith won 62 percent (8 won, 5 lost) of his defensive zone faceoffs tonight.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Columbus Blue Jackets, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Feb. 18 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Sunday, Feb. 19 at Carolina Hurricanes, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

Tuesday, Feb. 21 vs. Winnipeg Jets, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Thursday, Feb. 23 vs. New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On tonight’s performance:

Obviously it was good. It was good for Leivo to – confidence is earned, you can’t give it to him and I thought he did a good job here tonight so he gets back in the lineup tomorrow even though [Soshnikov] is available, so I thought that was positive. The other thing that was positive was we were able to play everyone so you’re set up better for tomorrow not having a group of guys worn out so that’s good. I thought Freddy [Andersen] was really good early when we needed him.

On if there will be less morning skates after tonight’s win:

Well the scary thing is the players think the optional is for them. They have no idea the coach likes it better than anybody.

On the difference between tonight and recent slow starts:

The goaltender – I thought he was real solid. I thought they were heavy and we didn’t execute great early. I thought they were heavy on us, I thought we were good defensively, but they were heavy. I thought Freddy made some real good saves tonight and, you know, the better the goalie plays, the more you settle down, the more you dial in. Obviously we scored timely goals and then it got to be a real good situation for most games in this league where you’re grinding right to the bitter end.

On regrouping after the second period penalty shot:

We talked about it, there’s nothing we can do about that. That’s a decision we make. What are we going to do? Let’s just settle down and play with poise and do what we can and not worry about that.

On the team continuing to push in the third period:

I thought the third period was good that way. We didn’t do silly things. We played with maturity, which is good and got on and off the ice right. Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re still a young group and we’re going to make lots of mistakes over time, but we’ll learn over time. As we get more and more professional we’ll manage the game better.

On if he expected Matthews to hit 27 goals:

Obviously you know he’s a real good player but you don’t know – the NHL is a really good league, it’s hard to score goals in this league… He’s very determined with a heavy shot and goes to the hard areas, the traffic areas. That’s where he scores.

FREDERIK ANDERSEN (100TH CAREER NHL WIN)

On the team’s performance tonight:

I think this was a very good game for us. We came out right from the start and did a good job in the first period and we kept going. In the third we came at them instead of sitting back, which is good.

On tonight’s defensive play:

They were good. They kept most of the shots to the outside and that makes my job a lot easier. I think that way we can box them out and be first on retrieving pucks. That was good.

On regrouping after allowing a penalty shot goal:

You’ve just got to think about the next save and the next shift for the players. We regrouped and came at them again. We knew the most important thing was to get the win tonight.

JOSH LEIVO (1 GOAL, 2 ASSISTS)

On his performance tonight:

It feels good to help contribute but to also get the win. It’s the first win of the year for me in the lineup so I’m just excited for that.

On producing offensively from his off-wing:

Yeah, that’s where I’ve played the last couple of years so I just got comfortable with it, but I’m comfortable playing on any side and wherever coach wants me I’ll play.

On picking up three points in tonight’s win:

It feels really good right now. I’ve just got to keep it going now and take it day-by-day and work on the next game.

On how he feels in game action:

I’m getting more into the game and more comfortable and confident. I think this game helps with the confidence a bit to get that first one out of the way right away. I’ve just got to keep moving forward and work on the next game.

On missing an empty net early:

I was a little down but he got a good stick on it. I was fortunate enough to get another chance in that period and capitalize on it.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (2 GOALS, 9 SHOT ATTEMPTS)

On tonight’s win:

I think we came out and just played the right way. We played fast, just like our slogan says. When you do the right things, we’re definitely a tough team to play against. It’s definitely a much better start than we’ve gotten the last couple of games.

On moving past penalty calls against Toronto in the second period:

You just forget about it, you can’t really control that kind of stuff. Whether it was a bad call or a good call, I think we just didn’t worry about it. We came out, killed the penalties – obviously they scored on the penalty shot – but we came out, killed a couple of penalties and just got back to it.

On Andersen’s performance:

He’s unbelievable. He makes so many saves, he’s so sound in the net, he’s always in a good position. There was kind of a stretch there in the first where they were possessing the puck and rolling around our zone. He came up big for us and allowed us to get back on our feet and playing our game.