The Toronto Maple Leafs will carry the momentum of two wins in three games into their clash Tuesday night against the visiting New York Islanders.
Sparked by two goals from AHL call-up Benoit-Olivier Groulx, the Maple Leafs built a 3-0 lead and held on for a 4-2 road victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
It followed a 3-2 shootout loss to Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Toronto snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 6-4 win on Thursday over the Anaheim Ducks, when team captain Auston Matthews went down with a season-ending knee injury.
“No one’s folding the tent,” said Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly, who also scored against the Wild. “We’re trying to compete. We’re trying to push and play good hockey and win games. And, I mean, you’re not going to win every night, but you want the compete to be there, you want the effort to be there, and I think it has been lately. We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re going to look to build off tonight.”
Despite gaining five points over the past three games, the Maple Leafs sit 10 points out of the playoffs as the seventh-place team in the Atlantic Division.
Groulx has three goals in four games since his promotion from the Toronto Marlies. He has four goals and eight points in 69 career games with the Maple Leafs and Ducks.
“It felt really good,” Groulx said. “I thought I had a really tough first period. I was behind the play. I was surprised by their speed, honestly, and their execution, and came back in the second, and I knew I had to regroup.”
Said Toronto head coach Craig Berube: “I know what I’m getting out there, shift after shift with (Groulx). It’s great to see him get a couple of goals tonight. He had another good game all around.”
The Islanders are coming off a 3-2 home win on Saturday over the Calgary Flames.
Simon Holmstrom scored twice in a three-minute span, once while killing a penalty, to help the Islanders go up 3-0.
“We had a really good first period,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We had a good jump. I mean, we scored three goals. I was pretty pleased with the way we came out, and that was part of what we talked about before the game. We want to get off to a good start. And we had that good start we were looking for.”
Holmstrom was moved to the second line Saturday to play with newly acquired veteran center Brayden Schenn and Anthony Duclair.
“It gives us four very good lines,” Roy said. “Having (Holmstrom) play with Schenn, I thought that was giving us scoring from that line, A, and B, (we feel) comfortable that they can defend very well.”
The Islanders, 11-5-0 in their past 16 games, were third in the Metropolitan Division after their win on Saturday.
“We’ve been doing a good job of managing the puck when we know that our legs aren’t really there, getting the puck deep and trying to outwork them in their own zone,” Holmstrom said. “Everyone is fighting.”
