The Islanders got past the worst — and it’s getting easier to expect the best in their playoff chase.
After falling to the NHL-worst Avalanche last month — one of Colorado’s three wins in its past 20 games — the Islanders avenged the loss and moved within one point of the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot with a 5-1 win over Colorado on Sunday night at Barclays Center.
The Islanders (25-19-10) have now won three of their past four games, heading into Tuesday’s battle at Toronto, which sits just above the Islanders in the standings. When Jack Capuano was fired as coach Jan. 17, the Islanders had the fewest points in the conference, but the team has stormed back into contention by going 10-3-2 over the past 15 games.
The Avalanche (15-36-2) scored the game’s first goal, but the Islanders took control behind a pair of brilliant passes from John Tavares. Backup Jean-Francois Berube, making his fifth start of the season in net, made 24 saves for his second win of the season.
Berube was coming off his worst performance of the year, but was solid from the start Sunday, making a nice save on a wraparound by Mikko Rantanen and a sliding stop of John Mitchell on a Colorado odd-man rush. Berube, though, had no help against Joe Corbone, who was left all alone to score for the first time in 42 games, giving the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with 11:48 left in the first period.
The Islanders couldn’t convert on a first-period power play, in which a strong chance from Calvin de Haan was stopped by Calvin Pickard’s glove, but it wouldn’t take long for the Isles to even the score, with Nick Leddy sending a wrist shot in with 7:59 left in the first period. It was Leddy’s ninth goal of the season, and his first since Jan. 22.
“The momentum was on their side and we had to take it away as quickly as possible,” Leddy said after the period.
One day after being shut out for the second time all season, the Islanders offense had trouble getting going, but Berube stayed strong, turning away a tough shot from Nathan MacKinnon, before getting help from Leddy, who blocked a rebound attempt.
The Islanders attack got a much-needed boost with a power play — Colborne, called for boarding — even getting 26 seconds with a 5-on-3 advantage after Tavares was hit in the face by a high-stick from Fedor Tyutin. The Islanders would only need 17 seconds, taking their first lead of the game on a pretty sequence, in which Leddy corralled a rebound and backhanded the puck to Tavares, who one-timed a pass across the ice to Ryan Strome for the goal with 5:14 left in the second period.
Strome’s ninth goal of the season was his third in the past seven games. The 23-year-old has registered eight points during that span.
“When the pucks go in, you feel confident,” Strome said following the second period. “We just have that confidence going. I’m kind of getting in a little groove and that makes everything a little bit easier.”
The Islanders closed the second by successfully killing off their second penalty of the period, then got another boost from the captain early in the third. After Johnny Boychuk found Tavares in front, the star center fed a nifty pass under the glove of Pickard to Anders Lee, who slammed home the team’s third goal just 1:21 into the period.
Lee then notched a power-play goal with 8:38 left in the game — passing Tavares with his team-high 21st goal — followed by Jason Chimera tallying his 13th less than three minutes later.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
