Auston Matthews returned to practice and nearly took part in a full session. The question is how much longer? The Toronto Maple Leafs were up 2-1 late in the third period and headed to the power play after forward Max Pacioretty was tripped. Toronto expected New York to eventually pull their goalie, but not at the point they decided to do it. With the 42.3 seconds left in regulation time, New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy pulled goaltender Ilya Sorokin, even though the faceoff was in his own zone. The Islanders were never able to get the puck out of their own zone despite a mad scramble. Former Islanders captain John Tavares eventually iced the game away with an empty-net power play goal with 32.9 seconds remaining in the game [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gp3FZdFsX8[/embed] "I think it's the first time that I've ever seen that," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said. The Leafs had called a timeout prior to the play after their previous power play had gone awry. Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll bailed out his team with a big breakaway save on Islanders forward Brock Nelson. Even still, Berube didn't expect the strategy implemented by Roy. "I didn't think they'd pull their goalie," Berube said. "I thought that if they won the draw, rip it down, and they're coming on the goalie was coming just to prepare guys to, you know, be ready and what's going on. Obviously a big goal for us." Roy is no stranger to pulling his goalie in unconventional situations. During his tenure as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, Roy famously pulled a goaltender with more than 13 minutes left in the third period on Dec. 6, 2014. With his team down 5-1 and getting ready to go on a 5-on-3, Roy pulled the goalie to try to get a quick goal. During that season, Roy has generally pulled his goalie earlier than normal or tried unconventional pulls to some degree of success. In this situation, Roy explained his rationale after the game with Islanders reporter Andrew Gross of Newsday. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN7acGZL3OQ[/embed] "If they win the draw, we don't touch the puck game over. If we win the draw, we could ice it, and then we could play 5-on-5 in their zone," Roy said." So I had, what, 42 seconds left in the game, 38, 48 seconds left in the game, that's the best chance to create some offense. Roy said Jean-Gabriel Pageau was good on the faceoffs all night so that also factored into it, despite finishing the night with just six faceoff wins on 15 attempts. "Because it was a penalty we could ice the puck and try to get some possession offensively." Roy admitted it was a "very-low percentage play." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExNjM5NDEwNTc4NDM0MDI0/googlenews.svg] Stay updated with the most interesting Maple Leafs stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwytvfCA?ceid=CA:en&oc=3] to never miss a story.
