If the Toronto Maple Leafs are to embark on an improbable run to the post-season, a sweep of their five-game homestand that began Thursday would have been a great start.

So much for that.

Islanders forward Mike Comrie gets a shot off despite being taken down by Leafs defenceman Pavel Kubina in the first period of Thursday's game in Toronto.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The visiting New York Islanders — one of six teams standing between the Leafs and a playoff berth — scored a quartet of power-play goals and an empty-netter to beat Toronto 5-4.

Ruslan Fedotenko notched two goals — outmanoeuvring mammoth Leafs defenceman Hal Gill in the crease on both — and Bryan Berard had a goal and two assists for the Islanders.

New York (26-25-7), which came in one point ahead of Toronto (23-27-9) for 13th place in the Eastern Conference, has won two in a row following a seven-game losing skid.

"This is a big win for us," Fedotenko said. "Everyone is fighting for a playoff spot and we need these points."

Leafs fall to basement

Mike Comrie also scored on the power play, and Freddy Meyer added the empty-netter for the Islanders, who went 4-for-7 with the man advantage to Toronto's 1-for-5. Miroslav Satan and Josef Vasicek each collected two helpers, and Rick DiPietro stopped 27 shots.

Darcy Tucker, Mats Sundin, Matt Stajan and Alexei Ponikarovsky had the Leafs goals, with the latter drawing Toronto within one with 18.3 seconds remaining. Tomas Kaberle had two assists, while Vesa Toskala made 24 saves in his 10th consecutive start.

The Leafs' loss, combined with Tampa Bay's 5-3 win at Philadelphia, dropped Toronto to last place in the East.

"We should've won that hockey game, but we didn't play well," Stajan said. "We can't come in here and say we played as well as we could, because we didn't."

Next up for the Leafs is a clash with Boston on Saturday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET). The Bruins occupy the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference, eight points ahead of Toronto.

Sundin closes in on Goulet

New York opened the scoring on a power play with 3:48 remaining in the first period. Ex-Leaf Berard snuck in from the point to convert a goalmouth feed from Satan for his fifth goal of the season.

Tucker got credit for the equalizer at 7:51 of the second. Stajan spun and fired from a sharp angle to DiPietro's left, and the puck struck Tucker's skate and eluded a helpless DiPietro. It was Tucker's 10th goal, marking the ninth straight season in which he's cracked double digits.

A more conventional strike put the Leafs ahead 90 seconds later. Knocked down in front of the Islanders net, Sundin rose in time to sweep in the rebound off Ponikarovsky's deflection for his team-leading 24th.

The goal was the 547th of the Swede's career, moving him within one of Michel Goulet for 23rd on the NHL's all-time list. Ron Francis is 22nd with 549 goals.

Toronto's lead didn't last long. A little more than five minutes later, Fedotenko fought off Gill in the crease to whisk in the carom from Vasicek's shot off the post.

Opportunity wasted

Sundin's errant centring pass in the offensive zone led to New York's go-ahead goal. Comrie flipped it into a three-on-one rush, which he finished by converting Satan's cross-crease feed. Toskala slid over to nearly make a terrific save, but the puck trickled through his legs and barely across the goal line.

Fedotenko duplicated his earlier effort to put the Islanders ahead 4-2 at 4:29 of the third. Again getting inside position on the six-foot-seven 250-pound Gill, the six-foot-two, 195-pound winger converted Berard's rebound.

Toronto finally got a power-play goal of its own midway through the third, when Stajan slid in a long rebound.

A two-man advantage a few minutes later afforded the Leafs a fine opportunity to tie the game, but a mad scramble in front of DiPietro was the closest they came.

Meyer made it 5-3 with his first goal of the season into an empty cage with 53 seconds to play.

Ponikarovsky made it interesting by banging in a rebound with 18.3 seconds left.