The Associated Press
NEW YORK–After climbing back from a two-goal deficit, the N.Y. Islanders didn’t get deflated when Toronto regained the lead late in regulation time.
They simply found a way to post another big home win.
Brock Nelson’s second goal of the game at 2:42 of overtime lifted the Islanders to a 6-5 victory last night.
Trailing 5-4 late in the third period, the Islanders pulled goalie Thomas Greiss and tied it on Andrew Ladd’s deflection with 1:29 left.
“We did a good job staying in the game,” Nelson said.
“There was never doubt in here,” he stressed. “We never got down.”
Josh Bailey had a goal and two assists, Ryan Strome added a goal and an assist, and Nikolay Kulemin also scored for the Islanders.
New York stopped a two-game skid while improving to 6-0-2 in its last eight at home.
On the winning goal, Nelson got a pass from Bailey and beat Leafs’ goalie Frederik Andersen on the blocker side.
That gave the Islanders their first win this season in a game they trailed after two periods (1-12-2).
William Nylander, who had his first career hat trick in a win at Boston on Saturday night, had given Toronto a 5-4 lead with 2:01 left in regulation when took a pass from Morgan Rielly and beat Greiss on the blocker side.
But Ladd tied it with his 12th goal just 32 seconds later.
“The air kind of came out of us when they got their fifth for a quick second, but the bench got right back at it,” noted Islanders’ interim coach Doug Weight.
“There’s a lot of belief on the bench right now, they feel good about themselves,” he added.
“And when you can find ways to win games like this, it’s crucial.”
Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, Nikita Soshnikov, and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto, which finished 2-4-0 on a season-high six-game trip.
Rielly had three assists.
“We have to be better around the net,” Andersen stressed. “They were getting to loose pucks too early.
“We have to be better at bearing down and getting pucks out of there.”
“We got better as the game went on,” Weight said.
“We were a step behind a little bit on the forecheck and we were letting them dictate a lot early,” he noted.
“And then I think we kind of just got a little [angry] and we got charged up . . . and we seemed to gain some energy.”
Elsewhere in the NHL, St. Louis blanked Philadelphia 2-0 and New Jersey edged Buffalo 2-1.
