TEMPE, Ariz. — The Islanders may come from all over the country, but Mallett Arena felt like home Thursday.
The 4,600-seat building was transformed into UBS Arena West as the Islanders defeated the Coyotes 5-1 in front of a crowd more blue and orange than Kachina.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it in Arizona, but it was nice to see the support from them here,” Julien Gauthier said. “They were loud. That's great for us. Of course it's also fun to get a win for them.”
This was just the bounce back the Islanders needed after losing 5-4 in overtime two nights ago in Denver.
They managed the puck much more easily, moved it and controlled the flow of play against a team that was surprisingly in the playoff conversation.
And the front line of Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Matthew Barzal had a trio of goals and six points on a night when Barzal was named an All-Star for the third time in his career.
“I don't think I was too happy with the last game in Colorado, and I wanted to have a bounce-back night,” Horvat said after scoring twice. “I think all three of us did a great job tonight. A lot of our offense came from playing well against them, defending, backtracking and countering, which was great.”
This is the Islanders' first win of 2024, and they hope it helps them get back to the form they had in early December, as opposed to the watering down they've had in recent weeks.
The crowd even avoided the Islanders' most unscrupulous feature of the 2023-24 season: the nerve ending-shattering third period.
It seemed all but inevitable after Arizona cut a 2-0 lead to 2-1 on Nick Schmaltz's power-play goal at 3:29 of the second period and the score remained unchanged going into the third period. Ta.
But 4:29 into the final period, after Barzal committed a turnover in the defensive zone, Lee scored and beat Connor Ingram to extend the lead to two points.
And just 53 seconds later, Gauthier made it 4-1 with a rush, prompting a cacophony of “Let's Go Islanders” chants.
And at this point, if Islanders fans still harbor memories of losing the lead in the past, Horvat made it 5-1 and all the team had to do was take the lead at the 13:05 mark. By shutting down the team in the third period, which was rare, they alleviated that concern.
“We didn't deviate from the plan overnight,” Horvat said. “We just kept pushing. And obviously different guys stepped up at different times. I was really proud of the way we played in the third round.”
If Islanders could do that more often, it would save a lot of nerve endings for those wearing the blue and orange.
Instead, those fans had to settle for hopes that this might be the start of a new trend of the Islanders controlling games from the jump.
The Islanders' power play came just 11 seconds into their first chance of the night, with Horvat converting the goal at 7:56 of the first period.
Less than five minutes later, Barzal's cross-ice feed caught Mike Riley near the left circle, cutting the lead to two points.
Outside of Schmaltz's goal (which happened after Arizona's 5-on-3 game, but before Riley returned to play), the Coyotes actually scored the same goal as the one in October between the teams, when the Islanders Z had the advantage in this match. Up to less than 20 shots.
This game required more leg power from Ilya Sorokin, and Sorokin was up to the task, making 25 saves, including multiple dangerous stops during the second period for Helter Skelter.
But it was arguably one of the best games the Islanders have played during the 4-3-3 stretch they have recorded over the past 10 games.
As chants of “Let's go, Islanders'' were heard on the road, two points proved this.
“Awesome. It was great,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I'm assuming [the fans] I'm also planning on coming to Las Vegas. ”
