BOSTON — Lately, it seems like the Islanders have been able to do this every three or four games.
In a way, that makes it even more frustrating that they've had such a bad past four weeks. They know they can play like they did Sunday against the Bruins. He entered the playoff team's building and controlled most of the game, finishing the game with a 5-4 overtime victory in the final over Bo Horvat.
“We're really excited,” said captain Anders Lee, who scored 17 and 18 goals this season. “There was a lot of excitement. In a way, it was a relief. We worked for it tonight.”
While it was encouraging that the Islanders snapped their losing streak at three and played a straight game that tilted the TD Garden ice in the right direction for most of the night, the problem at this point in the season is that the Islanders It's not about whether you can play a good match or not.
The question is whether we can play multiple games in a row like this. And the more you struggle to achieve that, the more consecutive good games you'll need to climb out of the hole.
Despite a growing injury list, with Isaiah George (concussion doubt) joining Simon Holmstrom (upper body), the Islanders put together a game that could be used as a springboard.
They fought back after some early adversity and played well enough to win on special teams, with a top-heavy front of Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, split for the first time all season, showing good chemistry.
The defense also had great results, playing perhaps the most shot-first game of the season, with Ryan Purok hitting his first 3-point shot since November 26, 2022.
“This was probably his best game since he's been here,” coach Patrick Roy said of the No. 6.
Despite this, the Islanders held a 3-2 lead heading into the third, but Justin Brazeau pulled the Bruins within one point at 10:18 of the second.
Within five minutes of the third period, the Islanders and Bruins traded goals, with Lee and David Pastrnak capitalizing on turnovers in the defensive zone to make it 4-2 and then 4-3.
As the Bruins ramped up the pressure, Pastrnak scored again with 7 minutes, 16 seconds left, converting a Pavel Zascha feed into the back post and beating Alexander Romanov for the goal.
All the ingredients were there for the Islanders to win, but Horvat, playing 3-on-3 hockey for the first time in a month, got up on the ice and finished the run, giving the Islanders their second overtime win of the year. – and you can avoid the tragedy of loss.
The Islanders quickly fought back after losing a challenge on Cole Koepke's goal 3:01 into the game, scoring three straight goals, including Horvat's 4-on-5 goal during a delay-of-game penalty for a missed challenge. I decided.
“We picked up where we left off what I felt was good hockey in the Toronto game.” [both losses]” said Lee. “I didn't swerve, I didn't do too much, I didn't hold on to the stick. Sometimes, as things are going, when you're under pressure, you have to stay calm and play. Tonight I thought we could stay calm and play an intense game. I thought.”
In fact, this is North-South hockey, the kind of hockey Roy said he wanted the Islanders to play, and it produced a game where the Islanders had the advantage in shots and chances.
“I thought we threw a lot more pucks on the net tonight,” Horvat said. “Creating dirty chances and rebounds isn't always pretty. I think we did a good job in terms of getting traffic and bodies to the net.”
That's fine.
Now, could we do that in Las Vegas on Thursday and in Utah on Saturday? How about a two-week homestand after that?
If so, we need to have a conversation.
