The New York Islanders gained a slim upper hand on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference playoff race on Thursday night. 

Randy Robitaille tallied the lone goal of a shootout as the Islanders rallied for a 3-2 victory over the visiting Maple Leafs in front of 11,759 fans at the Nassau Coliseum.

Randy Robitaille skates by a jubilant Islanders bench after scoring a goal.
(Ed Betz/Canadian Press)

By coincidence, New York stunned Toronto 3-2 in a shootout in their previous meeting on Feb. 13, and now leads the 10th-place Maple Leafs by a single point in the conference standings.

"You look at the standings and every game we play is important," Robitaille said. "We are not looking during the game, but I can guarantee you that, afterward, the guys are checking other scores to see how the race is shaping up."
 
Robitaille beat Andrew Raycroft with a low shot to the blocker side to put the Islanders up 1-0 in the shootout and netminder Rick DiPietro clinched it by denying Alexei Ponikarovsky with a pokecheck.

"I was watching him with the other shooters," Robitaille said. "I knew what I wanted to do before I shot."'

Earlier in the shootout, DiPietro stuck out his left pad to stop John Pohl and gloved Mats Sundin's backhand shot.

Raycroft countered by squeezing the pads on Miroslav Satan and kicking out Viktor Kozlov's shot off a forehand deke.

"It's frustrating, but we got a point," Raycroft said. "We're right there [in the race].

"It's not like we lost eight points. If you're going to lose, at least get a point out of it."

Matt Stajan and Ponikarovsky scored in regulation for the Maple Leafs (29-23-9), losers in five of their last seven games.

Trent Hunter erased a 2-0 deficit by scoring twice on deflections as the Islanders (30-23-8) won for the fourth time in their last five games.

New York has gained points in 13 of its last 15 contests (9-2-4).

"Since the all-star break, we've been playing with a lot of confidence," DiPietro said. "We do not want to be in the position where we have to come back, but we're not afraid of it if it happens."

Two goals off skates

Toronto was outshot 13-9 in a scoreless first period, but Stajan was credited with opening the scoring 11:34 into the second when Alex Steen's pass struck his left skate and the puck entered the net.

It was Stajan's ninth goal of the season.

Ponikarovsky made it 2-0 at the 13:37 mark, notching his 16th on a shot from the boards that caromed off the skate of Brendan Witt and past DiPietro.

"They got two lucky goals — both off skates," Islanders forward Mike Sillinger said. "We were playing well and we did not let that affect us."

Indeed, Hunter answered back by tipping Sean Hill's flip shot from the point past Raycroft for his 16th with 58 seconds to go in the period.

Sundin appeared to put Toronto ahead 3-1 early in the third period on a shot from a seemingly impossible angle, but the tally was disallowed because of goaltender's interference because Ponikarovsky's stick was stuck between DiPietro's pads.

Hunter then tied it 2-2 on a similar play to his first goal, deflecting Tom Poti's slapshot for his 17th with 6:04 remaining.

It was Hunter's 17th and came with Bryan McCabe serving a minor penalty for hooking.

"We talked about keeping things simpler on the power play," Hunter said. "It was nice to be able to get a couple of goals."

Jason Blake had a glorious opportunity to win it outright in overtime for New York, but he fired a shot off the far goalpost.

Sundin clanged a backhand shot off the near post just as time expired.

With files from Sports Network