One last bit of home cooking before heading off for the do-or-die road trip.
The Islanders took advantage of their final game in Brooklyn before a franchise-record nine-game road trip, taking a 6-4 victory over the Devils on Sunday night at Barclays Center. They split this back-to-back, home-and-home set after the Devils took a 3-2 game in Newark on Saturday, and extended the Isles’ home points streak to 11 games (9-0-2), their longest such streak since 1982.
It also reinforced the idea the Islanders are good on Atlantic Avenue, and need to figure out how to consistently win everywhere else, where they are 7-13-4.
“There’s no mental crap right now,” interim head coach Doug Weight insisted on Saturday night about the road woes.
What has been made clear is that the Islanders (27-21-10) have found their way under Weight’s leadership, now 10-4-2 since he took over for the fired Jack Capuano on Jan. 17 (All four losses coming on the road). But the Devils (25-24-10) are pushing for that same second wild-card spot, and showed their desperation Saturday in front of goalie Cory Schneider.
But backup Keith Kinkaid played Sunday, and despite one highlight-reel save on Josh Bailey in first period, he was a big part of the reason the Islanders had a 4-3 lead going into the third period.
But the Islanders started the third on a power play because of some captain-on-captain violence, with Andy Greene nailing John Tavares with a late cross check at the end of the second. That power play resulted in Tavares getting his 21st goal of the season, finishing a nice passing play to give his team a 5-3 lead just 26 seconds into the period.
And by the 1:00 mark of the third, Jason Chimera had extended the lead to 6-3 on a right-wing break, beating Kinkaid high. But the Devils’ lone All-Star, Taylor Hall, cut the lead to 6-4 when he beat Kinkaid’s fellow backup, Jean-Francois Berube, with a power-play goal off a left-wing rush at 8:37.
But that was all the Devils could muster before the final horn sounded and the Islanders had another win at home.
“For the next four hours, we need to be homers,” Weight had said before the game, his team starting the trip in Detroit on Tuesday. “We’ll worry about Tuesday, Tuesday.”
Weight made it point to say he wanted his team to start better than it did Saturday, when it was down 3-0 by midway through the third period. Once again in front of their home fans, the Islanders responded with some jump in their legs and edge in their game.
They did go down early, when Miles Wood scored a power-play goal for the Devils at 9:15 of the first period. But the Isles answered when Ryan Strome was able to poke a loose puck over Kinkaid at 14:33 to take a 1-1 tie into the second.
“We want to push the pace right off the bat,” Weight had said, “be physical early and get in their zone a little bit more.”
The second started with Casey Cizikas catching Kinkaid sleeping, a wraparound backhand going through the goalie’s legs as he stood there oblivious, giving the Isles a 2-1 lead. It was extended to 3-1 when Strome got his second of the game, beating Kinkaid through the wickets on a wrist shot from the right dot. It then seemed to get out of hand when Andrew Ladd got his 16th of the season on a shorthanded goal at 11:59, making it 4-1.
But the Devils were not going quietly.
First, Kyle Palmieri had a turnaround shot in the slot to beat Berube, making it 4-2. Then with just over two minutes remaining in the second period, a long blast from Steven Santini was stopped by Berube, but bounced off Isles forward Stephen Gionta in front and in, making it 4-3 going into the third.
“We have a lot of hockey left,” Weight had said — only leaving out the part that so much of it is on the road.
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