The New York Islanders won both games on their schedule this week. They blew out the Lightning and shut out the Flyers with both games taking place on home ice. With four points gained this week the Islanders currently have 91 points total. They’re currently sitting in the second wild card spot and tied for the first spot with the Panthers who hold the tiebreaker.
After last week’s 5-0 loss, the Islanders extended their regular season losing streak against the Lightning to six games. With a tight playoff race and a home matchup against that same Lightning team, the Islanders could ill afford to bring that streak to seven games. The Isles came out of the gates like a team desperate for a win. They out-hustled the Lightning in the early going and peppered Brian Elliott with shots. After a scoreless first, Adam Pelech hit pay-dirt with a shot from the point at the 3:46 mark of the second period. Later in the period Brock Nelson one-timed a pass off the stick of Samuel Bolduc to go up by two. Less than a minute later Kyle Palmieri found some space and scored on a wrist shot to give the Islanders a 3-0 lead.
Nikita Kucherov beat Ilya Sorokin with a shot at the 16:47 mark of the period to get the Lightning on the board. However the Islanders would still leave the second period with a three goal lead, courtesy of Ryan Pulock scoring with just 20 seconds left. In the third period the Islanders executed their strong defensive gameplan to prevent any chance of a Lightning comeback. Sorokin was sharp as well, making 30 saves throughout the course of the game. Goals from Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat late in the third were the exclamation points in this one. The Islanders snapped their regular season losing streak against the Lightning in a critical 6-1 victory at UBS Arena.
Riding the momentum of a big win on Thursday, the Islanders hosted the Flyers on Saturday night. Scott Mayfield got the Islanders going at the 14:19 mark of the first, ripping a shot from the point past Carter Hart. Next up was Nelson in the second period who took a long pass from Noah Dobson and scored from the circle. Later in the period, Bolduc received a great pass from Horvat to score his second career NHL goal to give the Isles a 3-0 lead.
Despite creating some good chances the Flyers had no answer for Sorokin in this one. Sorokin stopped all 27 Flyer shots that came his way en route to his league leading sixth shutout performance. Simon Holmstrom added one more goal in the third against backup goaltender Felix Sandstrom. This gave the Islanders another important 4-0 win over the Flyers.
This is exactly what the Islanders needed to come out and do this week. With destiny in their own hands they came out with two huge wins. And not only did they win both of these games but they did so in convincing fashion. There was an intensity to the Islanders’ game that didn’t seem to be there at the end of last week.
But even with the two impressive wins the Islanders can’t take their foot off the gas. The Penguins, Panthers and Sabres are also playing winning hockey at the moment and keeping the wild card race extremely tight. With that, the easiest path the Islanders have to the playoffs is just to take care of their own business. We saw them show up in a big way this week, now they just need to repeat that effort for two more games to secure a postseason spot.
1. Ilya Sorokin (Saved 57/58 shots faced this week, sixth shutout win against Flyers)
2. Brock Nelson (2 goals, 2 assists)
3. Bo Horvat (Goal, 3 assists)
Featured image courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
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