The Upshot: NY Islanders rout Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2 in statement win

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Islanders won their third straight, routing the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2 at UBS Arena on Tuesday night. Zach Parise and Hudson Fasching had second-period goals to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead, and Cal Clutterbuck scored twice for the Isles (37-27-8), who scored four times in the third period. Anders Lee and Noah Dobson also scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves in the victory. Mitchell Marner and Sam Lafferty scored for Toronto (42-19-9), which had won two in a row. Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves. Brock Nelson left the game in the first period after taking a hit from Noel Acciari.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The Islanders weren't the best team in the first period, and the Maple Leafs had their chances in the second as well, but in the third period, after Mitch Marner cut the Isles lead to 3-2, the Islanders first responded on the scoreboard with Cal Clutterbuck's second goal of the game, but then responded with playing one of their more complete third periods of the season. Their structure was sound; their line changes were crisp. They were physical and opportunistic and finished their scoring chances.

"We played pretty well, 200 feet against a pretty good offensive team," Clutterbuck said after the win. "There seems to be a lot of good offensive teams in the mix here. It just goes to show that if we can stick to the plan and be very disciplined in it, we can have success.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Brock Nelson left last night’s game late in the first period after taking a hit from Toronto’s Noel Acciari in the corner. There was no penalty called on the play. Nelson stayed down for a while before heading to the tunnel and did not come out for the second or third period.

STATS OF THE GAME

Per NHL PR, After scoring his 19th goal tonight, Zach Parise needs one for his first 20-goal season as a member of the Islanders, a feat his father J.P. Parise achieved in 1975-76 and 1976-77. The Parises can become the fourth father-son duo in NHL history to each record a 20-goal season with the same franchise – only Ken Hodge and KenHodgeJr. (w/ BOS), Peter Stastny and Paul Stastny (w/ QUE/COL) and Greg Malone and Ryan Malone (w/ PIT).

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

You'll probably be seeing it as the Top Pay on SportsCenter on Wednesday and another submission by Ilya Sorokin for 'Save of the Year" as he robbed Erik Gustafsson with his patented paddle, keeping the deficit at 1-0 and allowing the Isles to find their game, seize the momentum and then pour it on.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders are next on the ice on Friday night when they travel to Columbus to take on Johnny Gaudreau and the Metro Division's last place Blue Jackets. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET.