Do you ever think about the Long Island Islanders? I don't, not really. The little brothers of the New York Rangers exist, we know that for sure. They played the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight and a hockey game happened.

This is that hockey game.

It began with a fight, oddly enough. Ross Johnston took on Wayne Simmonds, Simmonds didn't win but there was also some punches thrown once Wayne went down.

The Leafs have the offensive advantage to start, getting all of the shots on net for the first five minutes. Former Leaf Matt Martin blocked a Mark Giordano shot and lost the blade of his skate.

The offensive attack on the Islanders continues as the Leafs look to quickly eliminate the Islanders from playoff contention.

As the period moves on, the Islanders start to slowly take the lead in shots, as they get more and more through the Maple Leafs defense. The persistence pays off as Anthony Beauvillier scores the first goal of the game to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead with five minutes to play in the first.

The Maple Leafs come back off of this goal with holding down the fort in the Islanders end, and Mitch Marner takes advantage of an ignored rebound to tie the game at ones.

The first period ends with shots and goals tied at nine and one respectively.

The second period begins with a goal immediately, and to top it off, it’s an Alex Kerfoot won goal! 2-1 Long Island Islanders.

The period doesn’t get worse than that, but it’s not a heck of a lot better, but hey, I think I summed up tonight well:

The Leafs start to pick things up at the halfway point in the game, when Pierre Engvall and William Nylander each score to take the lead from the Islanders.

The Leafs have skated off the chocolate, and are picking it up as the second period comes along. More goals, more plays, more physicality.

The second period ends with the Maple Leafs up 3-2.

The third begins with all of the advantages for the Maple Leafs.

Zdeno Chara gets called for tripping Wayne Simmonds, and then the Islanders send the puck over the glass giving the Leafs a 5-3 advantage for over a minute. Ilya Sorokin stands tall and the Leafs can’t get anything past fine with the two man advantage.  Blocked shots and posts were the order of the day for this power play. When it all settles, it’s still only 3-2 for the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs push hard with multiple two on ones, but can’t beat the Islanders defence, and the Islanders also fight to tie the game but can’t get anything quality at the net.

As the clock ticks down the Anders Lee almost ties the game, but Jack Campbell and the defenders work together to keep the puck out of the net. Everyone is waking up more for these final minutes. The Islanders want the dream of the playoffs to stay alive, the Leafs want a win to chase the Panthers for the division lead.

With Sorokin pulled from the Islanders net, with less than a minute to go David Kämpf gets an empty net goal to seal the win for the Leafs, 4-2.

With this win the Toronto Maple Leafs set a franchise record for wins in a season with 50, and eliminated the New York Islanders from playoff contention.

Auston Matthews sat this one out, but the boys in blue got the win anyway.

The Maple Leafs next game is Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers on TSN 4. Six more games to play before the playoffs. Let’s end the season on a win streak.

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