Islanders get much-needed road win over Maple Leafs to keep pace in tight playoff race

TORONTO — For all the pregame hype around Matthew Schaefer playing his first game in Toronto, it was the Islanders’ other local-native rookie, Cal Ritchie, who scored in his first game back home Tuesday. And for all the consternation about the Islanders’ power play all year long, the 5-on-4 unit finally looks like it’s heating up, scoring twice for the second time in four games. That all added up to a fairly straightforward 3-1 win against a Maple Leafs side that looks painfully aware that they’re out of the playoff race.Two points here was a box the Islanders had to check on this road trip that next heads to Ottawa, with a razor-tight playoff race affording little margin for error. The Islanders fulfilled their end of the bargain here in workmanlike fashion.

They led from 4:15 in and put on a clinic in defending a lead: controlling possession, putting the puck deep, keeping Toronto to the outside.It was far from the Islanders’ most entertaining game of the season, but the two headliners — Ritchie and the power play — carry serious implications if what we saw Tuesday can last. There have been moments this season when Ritchie seemed to waver in confidence.

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, it felt like the Islanders were pushing for more out of the 21-year-old.He’s continued to have ups and downs, as expected from any rookie, but the move to the wing is going well.

So is putting Ritchie on a line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anders Lee, two players who can more than make up for what the rookie lacks in experience and physicality. It was only right, too, that Brayden Schenn, whom the Isles have assigned to mentor Ritchie, scored his first goal for the franchise on an assist from the rookie.It was a beauty, with Ritchie in the middle of a tic-tac-toe power-play goal that started with Mathew Barzal and ended with Schenn just 4:15 into the night. Schenn’s was the first of two goals the power play scored in the first period, and the secon...