TORONTO --Home ice did not mean much in the two games between the New York Islanders and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

After losing to the Maple Leafs 3-1 at home Sunday, the Islanders responded with a strong 6-3 victory on Tuesday at Air Canada Centre.

Islanders coach Jack Capuano was impressed by the way his team responded to Sunday's loss.

"I thought structurally we responded, mentally we responded, physically we responded," Capuano said. "That to me was important because we just didn't play our game the last time we played Toronto. For some reason we lost our focus and didn't play within the framework that we want to play."

The Islanders had six different scorers and responded with three straight goals in the second period after the Maple Leafs cut their lead to 3-2.

Centers Brock Nelson, John Tavares, Frans Nielsen and Anders Lee and left wingers Nikolay Kulemin and Matt Martin scored for the Islanders (20-12-5). Tavares, Lee and Nielsen also added an assist apiece.

"We didn't play as well as we should have," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "We knew they were going to be better than they were in the last game. We talked about it, we tried to prepare for that. They were quicker, dug in harder and we didn't respond to it."

Right wingers Brad Boyes and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, and center Shawn Matthias scored for the Maple Leafs (13-15-7). Boyes and Matthias also had an assist while center Peter Holland had two assists.

The Islanders scored all of their goals in the first two periods on 15 shots against Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier.

He was replaced for the third period by James Reimer, who made six saves in his return from a groin injury. Babcock said he might have made the move earlier but was reluctant to risk Reimer's injury on what the coach said was a substandard ice surface Tuesday.

"I wasn't good enough tonight," Bernier said. "I didn't think we were ready as a team. It wasn't my game. I've got to be better next game. They have a lot of team speed. They come in off the zone, they work hard down low but I didn't come up with the big save, especially in the first period."

Islanders goaltender Thomas Greiss stopped 30 shots.

Matthias scored the only goal of the third period at 16:00.

"They took it to us," said Matthias, who has three goals for the season. "We had a lot of shots. We had a lot of shots after the second period, we just weren't capitalizing, but we weren't playing our style. We were trying to play theirs, run and gun, and we got into trouble."

"I think we did a lot of good things," Nielsen said. "This is the strength of our team, is our depth. We have four lines that can score only any given night, or play defense. We have been getting scoring from all four lines all season. It's good to see.

Nelson opened the scoring two minutes into the game with his 13th goal of the season, a wrist shot through Bernier's five hole.

Boyes tied it 39 second later, snapping home a rebound for his third goal after a shot by defenseman Jake Gardiner, who earned his 100th career point with the assist.

The Islanders regained the lead at 11:51 on Tavares' 14th goal, a tip-in of a pass by center Josh Bailey.

Nielsen tucked in a backhand for his 13th goal at 17:45 of the first to give New York a 3-1 lead.

Parenteau scored his ninth goal on a shot from the right faceoff circle at 10:57 of the second period to cut the lead to one.

The Islanders regained their two-goal lead at 11:25 of the second on Kulemin's fourth goal after Bernier had cleared the puck from behind the goal.

Martin scored his fifth goal from the slot at 18:06 of the second period and the Islanders led 6-2 after two periods when Lee put in his fifth at 19:20.

"We just have to keep playing hard and finding ways to win and build off that," Tavares said.

NOTES: Toronto G James Reimer (groin) played for the first time since Dec. 3 on Tuesday when he entered the game for the third period. He is scheduled to start Wednesday when the Maple Leafs visit the Pittsburgh Penguins. Toronto G Jonathan Bernier started his fifth straight game and for his sixth time in the past seven games Tuesday. ... Islanders G Jaroslav Halak (upper body) was put on injured reserve Sunday and did not make the trip to Toronto. ... Islanders D Marek Zidlicky returned to the lineup after an absence of two games. He replaced D Brian Strait. ... The Islanders will be in Buffalo on Thursday to face the Sabres.