Islanders lose in OT to Maple Leafs

There was frustration written all over every Islanders' face Tuesday night. After a bizarre 4-3 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs that featured a couple of wacky-bounce goals and zero power plays for the Islanders for a second straight game against Toronto, the Isles head into the weeklong All-Star break steamed and disappointed.

Also, they are in a four-way tie at the bottom of the Eastern Conference after taking only one of the four available points in this back-to-back set with the Leafs, who got away with a couple clear high sticks and didn't shy away from the physical play but were whistled for nothing that put them a man short by referees Mike Hasenfratz and Brian Pochmara.

"It's embarrassing," said Josh Bailey, whose shorthanded goal off a pretty feed by Matt Martin gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead at 9:17 of the second. "To go two straight games without a penalty -- I don't care how disciplined you are, that's just baffling. We're pretty mad about it."

That might have been enough to set the Islanders off, but after the Leafs tied it on Jake Gardiner's goal with Al Montoya screened by Clarke MacArthur laying in his crease 1:47 into the third, there was a real crazy carom that seemed to be the final indignity for the Islanders.

Mikhail Grabovski's shot deflected off Milan Jurcina's stick, nearly hit his helmet, sailed toward the goal, saucered past Montoya and below the crossbar with 3:31 left in the third, giving the Leafs a 3-2 lead after the Islanders had gone up 2-0 midway through the second.

With Jay Pandolfo and Andrew MacDonald Band-Aided up from sticks to the face -- Grabovski raked his stick across MacDonald's throat in the third with no call -- the Islanders seemed doomed.

But they got a Coliseum carom of their own to salvage a point. Grabovski tried to fire a puck around the boards in the closing seconds, and the puck hit a partition in the glass and bounced right to P.A. Parenteau's feet in the slot. He blasted one past Jonas Gustavsson with 12.2 seconds to go, sending it to overtime.

MacArthur scored his second of the night on a great feed from Grabovski at 2:06 of overtime, lifting the Leafs to the win and bringing a heaping of abuse down on the referees as the Islanders exited the ice.

"I don't really understand it," said John Tavares, who scored his 20th at 1:54 of the first and was delivering extra cross-checks and slashes to any Leaf in his vicinity. He, too, took a stick to the face, from Joffrey Lupul at the second-period horn, and skated off the ice yelling at the referees.

"I'm just shaking my head at that, really," he said. "I thought the ref was there and saw it . . . We just have to take the point and try to move on."

Tavares moves on to the big stage of the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday. His teammates have to rest up and focus on the final 34 games, in which the team would need roughly 45 points to have a realistic shot at the postseason.

But this last game before the break left a bad taste.

"We had some really good scoring chances. We should win this game," Jurcina said. "We've got to forget about it."