Cal Clutterbuck posted his first two-goal game in more than a year and the New York Islanders took advantage of a spate of turnovers by the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs to earn a 7-2 win Tuesday in Elmont, N.Y.
Zach Parise, Hudson Fasching, Simon Holmstrom, Noah Dobson and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders (37-27-8, 82 points), who extended their lead over the Florida Panthers to three points in the race for the first Eastern Conference wild card. New York is four points ahead of the ninth-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
Goalie Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves.
Sam Lafferty and Mitch Marner scored for the Maple Leafs (42-19-9, 93 points), who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Goalie Ilya Samsonov recorded 21 saves.
Lafferty, who was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 27, scored his first goal with his new team when he raised his stick to redirect a shot by Timothy Liljegren that trickled past Sorokin with 8:59 left in the first.
Parise tied the score with a 4-on-4 goal just 28 seconds into the middle period. Scott Mayfield skated around the back of the net and passed to Parise, who fired a shot beyond Samsonov’s glove as he was stuck leaning to the other side.
Fasching and Clutterbuck scored off turnovers fewer than five minutes apart late in the second. Liljegren misfired on an attempted clearing pass and Fasching picked up the puck and sent a 75 mph slapshot beyond Samsonov’s glove with 6:10 left.
Clutterbuck scored his first goal with 2:34 remaining in the period. A hard check by Casey Cizikas jarred the puck loose from Kampf before Clutterbuck redirected Ryan Pulock’s shot from the blue line.
Marner scored for the third straight game, 3:29 into the third; he took a pass from Austin Matthews, went to one knee in the slot and beat Sorokin under his stick.
Clutterbuck scored again just 44 seconds later; he picked off Morgan Rielly just inside the blue line in the Islanders’ zone and raced in for the unassisted goal. It was the eighth career two-goal game for Clutterbuck and his first since Dec. 16, 2021.
Dobson scored a length-of-the-ice empty-netter just after Samsonov was pulled with 6:04 left. Lee scored with 3:14 remaining.
–Field Level Media
