Leafs Come up Short vs Islanders

Too bad there’s more than 20 minutes in a hockey game. Toronto’s 3-1 first period lead vanished with 5 unanswered goals as the Leafs drop their second home game to the New York Islanders 7-4. Toronto came out hard following their road win in Pittsburgh but ran dry in the second allowing the Islanders to dominate.

The Leafs started the scoring with Carl Gunnarsson beating NY’s netminder, Evgeni Nabokov, 2:12 into the first. Gunnarsson recorded a goal and two assists in the loss. Matt Moulson answered for the Islanders to tie the game 1-1 sliding the puck past Toronto goalie Ben Scrivens. Scrivens was pulled in the third after giving up five goals on 25 shots. The kids put Toronto ahead with Nazem Kadri and Mikail Grabovski each beating Nabokov and ending the first up 3-1.

The next period was a different story. Momentum quickly swung in New York’s favour with Mark Streit and Brad Boyes scoring 1:26 apart to even the match. With the flood gates open, New York took to the ice on fire in the third scoring their 4th and 5th goal 72 seconds apart. Moulson upped the lead to three with his second goal of the night.

There was a glimpse of hope for the boys in blue with Matt Frattin scoring late in the third but an empty netter put out Toronto’s flame.
On the bright side, Kadri was hot with a goal and an assist and Frattin showed some serious potential in his first game call up from the Marlies covering for injured winger Jofferey Lupul.

Toronto gets a rest and heads to New York to play the Rangers on Saturday.