Maple Leafs hold off Islanders for first multigoal victory since Jan. 5

ELMONT, N.Y. --Morgan Rielly had a goal and an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-1 win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday.

"If you look at his stats and what he brings to our team, to not be at least a one-time All-Star, it's insanity, to be fairly honest," forward Mitchell Marner said of Rielly. "It's crazy, but the thing about Morgan, and the thing we all love about him, is he's the same guy through it all. He's a lot of fun to be around, he's a great person to have around our team with families or anyone. We're very fortunate to have him and he knows how much we love him in that locker room and on the ice. He does a lot of great things for us, but hopefully, he gets what he deserves here soon within the coming years."
Marner scored for the third straight game, and Petr Mrazek made 27 saves for the Maple Leafs (25-10-3), who blew a multigoal lead in four of their previous five but finished 3-2-1 on a six-game road stretch.
Each of their previous two wins were by one goal; Toronto defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Jan. 5.
"I liked a lot of what we did, what our whole lineup did," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Each line, I thought, gave us good shifts, gave us good efforts. I loved our second period. We took the 3-1 lead, and I thought we were really good and in full control of the second half of that second period. That was really good.
"The third period wasn't perfect in terms of controlling the play. I'd like to spend more time on their half of the ice like we did in the second, but I thought it was progress and I thought we defended really well. We didn't give any clean looks really at our net at all, and Petr was strong with anything they threw at him."

Zach Parise scored for the Islanders (14-14-6), who had won three in a row and were 7-1-1 in their previous nine games. Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves.
New York was playing the second of a back to back following a 4-0 victory against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.
"We knew the importance of the game, and two out of the three periods we played well," Parise said. "It's a really good hockey team over there that we didn't give a whole lot to, but on the flip side, there's some areas we could have probably been a little better."
Marner scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 13:25 of the first period when he slid the puck between Varlamov's skates to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.

It was Marner's second shorthanded goal at UBS Arena this season; he also scored during a penalty kill in a 3-0 win Nov. 21.
"Both plays were just great plays by our defense," Marner said of each shorthanded goal. " … Tonight I got a little lucky on it, but I don't know what it is. I think our team was ready to go for any opportunity penalty kill or power-play-wise. We're not afraid to try to make teams pay for it as well, so it's something that we try and do but do smart at the same time."
Parise tied it 1-1 with a backhand at 19:00 after a lob pass from Scott Mayfield, but Pierre Engvall put Toronto back in front with 0.4 seconds left when he worked his way around New York defenseman Andy Greene and slipped a backhand past Varlamov to make it 2-1.
"That one took some steam out of us," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "We battled through our power-play miscue and turnover, and Zach came back and got us back into the game. I was really liking our first period right until the last second, basically. I thought we gave them two freebies tonight in the first period."

Rielly gave the Maple Leafs a 3-1 lead with a one-timer from the right face-off circle at 9:42 of the second period. It was his first goal in eight games.
"To go into the third with a two-goal lead and just kind of play well enough to hang on to it is good," Rielly said. "That's what we want to do every night. Obviously, it hasn't been going that way as of late, but by no means was there panic within the dressing room about that trend. So, tonight was a good example of playing well. I thought Petr played really well, and a huge two points for us."
NOTES:The Islanders held a
video tribute for Clark Gillies
before the game. Gillies, who won four straight Stanley Cup championships with New York from 1980-83, died Friday at the age of 67. … Marner has three goals and two assists during a three-game point streak. … Defenseman Carl Dahlstrom was plus-1 in 12:30 of ice time in his Maple Leafs debut after being recalled from Toronto of the American Hockey League. … The Islanders have allowed five shorthanded goals this season. … Mayfield has a three-game point streak (one goal, three assists).