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Wednesday, Mar. 22 7:30pm ET
Isles stun Maple Leafs in Toronto | |||||
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TORONTO (AP) -- The New York Islanders rebounded from their worst loss of the season at the expense of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Claude Lapointe and Mariusz Czerkawski each scored two goals and Kevin Weekes made 27 saves as the Islanders beat the Maple Leafs 5-2 on Wednesday night. New York, eliminated from playoff contention last week, was coming off an 8-2 home loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. "We played hard and got rewarded," coach Butch Goring said. "I expected that we would bounce back after that big loss. I'm proud of the way we performed. And Kevin made some big saves for us." Brad Isbister added a goal and two assists for New York. Weekes made 20 saves in the third period when the Islanders were outshot 21-4. "Kevin was unbelievable out there," said Czerkawski, who leads the Islanders with 28 goals. "He gave us a chance to win. It's a nice way to come back from an 8-2 loss." Alexander Karpovtsev and Sergei Berezin scored for Toronto, which remained tied with Washington for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Maple Leafs have lost three of four games since losing defenseman Bryan Berard with a serious eye injury March 11. Before that, Toronto had won nine of 10. "We better wake up fast or we don't stand a chance," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "Our team, for some reason, came up with a clunker. It was probably an awful game to watch. At least it was from behind the bench. Neither team created anything." Weekes stopped Berezin on two close-range chances in the first period, and snared Steve Thomas' 40-foot blast to protect a 1-0 lead in the second period. "The key was we were able to connect on our offensive opportunities," Weekes said. "That made things easier for us. But give credit to Toronto. They're a resilient team. They never stopped in the third period." Lapointe opened the scoring at 6:23 of the first period on a power play when he one-timed a centering pass from Dmitri Nabokov past goalie Glenn Healy. Evgeny Korolev, playing in his 11th career game, assisted on the goal for his first NHL point. Czerkawski and Karpovtsev exchanged goals early in the second period, and Lapointe got his second of the game and 15th of the season when he banged in a rebound on a power play at 13:09. Isbister and Czerkawski added goals in the third period. Isbister has a career-high 20 goals. Islanders center Dave Scatchard left the game early in the first period because of a concussion after colliding with a Toronto defenseman. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard NY Islanders Clubhouse Toronto Clubhouse RECAPS St. Louis 2 Carolina 1
NY Islanders 5 AUDIO/VIDEO   Brad Isbister banks a shot off Toronto's Nikolai Antropov for the goal.avi: 791 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||