The New York Islanders needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive and they got one for their new Head Coach Pete DeBoer on Thursday night with a 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We’re pretty pumped to have Pete back there, just everything we’ve worked on in practice,†Matthew Schaefer said. “We really wanted to show him what a great group we got in here.â€
Brayden Schenn, JG.Pageau, Schaefer, Emil Heineman (PPG), Cal Ritchie (PPG, A) powered the offense for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin made 13 saves. Steven Lorentz, Easton Cowan (PPG), Morgan Rielly scored for the Leafs while Artur Akhtyamov made 39 saves in his first NHL start.
The Islanders understood the assignment with the playoff race tightening. The Islanders (91 points) closed the gap with the Philadelphia Flyers (92 points), who fell to the Detroit Red Wings (91 points) 6-3 on Thursday and currently occupy third in the Metropolitan Division. They leapfrogged the Columbus Blue Jackets (90 points), who lost 5-0 to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
“We’ve been talking all week about playoff habits,†DeBoer said. “You have to have them this time of year to give yourself a chance to get in the playoffs. I thought they delivered on that. It wasn’t a perfect game, but I loved how fast we played.â€
