COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Islanders are dominant. It was the Islanders’ third straight win. The Islanders are in playoff contention.
The general sentiment this season has been weird from the start, so with only six games left, it might not be surprising that the charge into the postseason isn’t exactly as inspired as the Charge of the Light Brigade. I don’t know.
However, in the end, UK lost, Islanders 4, Blue Jackets 2, resulting in the Isles winning three consecutive games and getting a taste of the postseason by overtaking the Capitals, who lost to Pittsburgh on Thursday night, in the secondary league. 2nd wild card spot.
What is better than a noble death?
Qualifying for the playoffs is one of them.
“One night when the ice was really bad, there were a lot of plays that looked great, but they just went over the sticks,” Anders Lee told the Post. “One of them was something we had to thoroughly eliminate. I thought we did a good job on that.”
This certainly means the Islanders can’t impose themselves more than a few shifts at a time against a Columbus team that sits in last place, plays for nothing, and lacks a laundry list of its best players. It was a terrible performance.
Ilya Sorokin, starting for the second year in a row, took 27 shots and made 25 stops, but rebound control still appeared to be a persistent problem.
But by the same token, the Islanders didn’t give up as much ice, holding a 42-15 5-on-5 scoring advantage.
“We make a shift on our end, move forward, get the next puck and go deep,” Mathew Barzal said. “Let’s make a forecheck and change the flow.”
It was a fun-filled game with the game tied at two going into the final period, but it was another stressful one for an Islanders team that has probably developed a mass ulcer or two by now. A complete exit was almost certain.
Could this be going in a bad direction for the visitors after Jett Greaves came on in relief of the injured Daniil Tarasov and had a perfect 14 saves in the second period in just his fifth NHL appearance? There was an underlying fear. .
But 3:21 into the final period, Noah Dobson finally hit Greaves with a shot from the right circle that hit the crossbar and ended up in the back of the net for a 3-2 lead.
From there, it was up to the Islanders to do what they did against the Blackhawks on Tuesday to close out the game.
Things got tense after Columbus pulled Greaves with less than four minutes left, but Sorokin came up with the save he needed and Kyle Palmieri’s empty net with 38 seconds left sealed the deal.
“We didn’t see too many holes in today’s game,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I thought we did a pretty good job. We had a little more left at the end, but… [but] We kept them until they pulled the goalkeeper and we scored with chances, pretty low and shots. ”
That was the prevailing sentiment after a not-so-inspiring three-game winning streak.
“I think we played more consistently throughout the game,” Lee said. “I don’t think we have the lulls that we used to have. A big reason we haven’t had consistent results is because the periods of the game were too long, like the first 20 seconds, the second 20 seconds. We’ve obviously seen that. I think for the most part in all of these wins, we’ve been pretty consistent with our play.”
There were some chances for mistakes in this game, especially in the see-saw first period, when Pierre Engvall chipped in Ryan Purok’s shot from the left point to take the lead and end the power play at 7:53. . Two minutes later, the Islanders got another point back with a power-play goal of his own, when Dmitri Voronkov got on the end of Kirill Marchenko’s rebound.
Marchenko focused on Sorokin’s worst night before the period ended, banking the puck from behind the net off the goalie’s head and making it two points after Barzal’s breakaway feed was stopped by Bo Horvat. It was a draw. Moments later, Tarasov, who appeared to be caught in the head by defenseman David Jilicek’s hip, hunched over in pain, with Greaves coming on in relief.
It was all over in the first 20 minutes.
A strange night to end a strange season.
At least for now, things may be turning in a positive direction.
