Good Morning, Islanders Country.
For most of the night, the best thing you could say about the Islanders’ effort was that they hung around. Despite being badly outshot (18-4 after one, 30-12 after two) and outplayed by the Calgary Flames, they were a goal away from being a goal away.
“The start was really bad and the finish was really good” - Lane Lambert
In a span of 59 seconds, a one-sided hockey game became one for the taking. The Islanders found their legs and found their game to tie the game and send it to overtime for the first extra session of the season. Meanwhile, Ilya Sorokin always had his game, making a season-high 43 saves, including several key ones in overtime, to give his team a chance to complete the comeback and, more importantly, give us this bench celly.
For the second straight home game, the Isles trailed a Western Conference opponent 3-1 heading into the third, and for the second consecutive game, they came away with two points.
The Islanders have a league-leading 22 third-period goals (T- BUF), scoring twice as many as they’ve allowed in the final period this season. They’ve found a way to come out on top in games they haven’t been in a position to win. Resiliency is a character trait that good teams have, and the Isles appear to have it.
Coming up, Cal Clutterbuck leaves early, and a new line combination provides a spark late. Plus, Mat Barzal isn’t bothered by not scoring, Long Island is awarded a hockey franchise, and Shannon Hogan tells us why we should grow to love the new win song.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period and came back to defeat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Monday night at UBS Arena. Noah Dobson scored at 4:02 of overtime off a pass from Mathew Barzal for the game-winner. Barzal had three assists, and Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri scored in the third period for the Islanders (8-5-0), who have won six of their past seven games. Ilya Sorokin made a season-high 43 saves. Mikael Backlund scored twice, and Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves for the Flames (5-4-2), who have lost five straight.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔹 The Islanders found the spark they were looking for at 10:08 of the third when Lee was able to backhand a rebound off Brock Nelson’s shot to give the Isles and the home crowd some life with half a period left.
🔸 59 seconds later, Palmieri tied it 3-3 at 11:07 with a hard, low shot from the top of the left circle under Markstrom's left pad. The Isles were feeling it.
🔹 Rasmus Andersson was sent to the penalty box after interfering with Adam Pelech and gave the Isles’ much-maligned power play an opportunity to play 4-on-3 in overtime. Barzal slid a pass to Dobson, who blasted a shot from the high slot for his fourth of the season to complete the comeback.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TOOK CHARGE: “When you start like that, there's concern, but the thing that I like, and the thing that I balance it with is I thought our players took it upon themselves and stepped up to the plate. It was all them. They came out after the second period and certainly took charge and had that belief." - Lane Lambert
❷ COULD STILL DO IT: "That Colorado game was one of those games where, there's little moments throughout the year that can really change the course of the season, I think that was one of them, and I think that played a little bit in tonight just knowing going into the third we hadn't had our best game and knowing we could still do it." - Mathew Barzal
❸ STUCK WITH IT: "We knew we didn't have our best first 40, but we stuck with it, we got one in the third, crowd got us momentum and we just carried on from there. “It's not pretty, but it's a big win, I thought it showed a lot of character coming back there and just a big goal in overtime.” - Noah Dobson
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are at Madison Square Garden tonight against the New York Rangers. We won’t know until later, but Semyon Varlamov, who has four straight road shutouts over the Blueshirts, is expected to be the starter.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck, who missed Friday’s practice in Detroit for maintenance, left the game after six shifts and logged just 3:32 in the first period. There was no update on his status after the game.
The loss of Clutterbuck in the lineup forced line shake-ups throughout the game, but one combination was conjured up to simply create a spark. Mathew Barzal centered a line with Anders Lee and fellow center Brock Nelson, and the numbers speak for themselves. We’ll see if the mix is something Lane Lambert goes back to as early as tonight at MSG.
🔄 BACK AGAIN: After loaning Robin Salo to the AHL Bridgeport Islanders on Sunday, Salo was recalled by the Islanders and joined them for their morning skate Monday morning prior to their meeting with the Calgary Flames.
Salo hasn’t seen game action with the varsity Islanders since Oct. 20th against the New Jersey Devils. On Sunday, he played in the AHL Islanders contest against the Providence Bruins in order to keep his legs fresh and in-game shape. Salo didn’t register any points and was called for a penalty in the 1-0 loss.
😅 NO SWEAT: Mathew Barzal knows he has to find the back of the net … eventually. But on Monday morning, he indicated that his drought has been made easier by the team winning five games in a row and him factoring in on goals.
"It would grate on me a little more if we were losing hockey games because of it, said Barzal. “The team’s been doing well, I feel like I’m setting up a lot of plays, and I like doing that, but at the end of the day, I have to score.”
In the first period, Barzal took a drop pass from Josh Bailey and made a beautiful feed to a darting Sebastian Aho to tie the game 1-1. On the MSG broadcast, Butch Goring pointed out that unlike the 2-on-1 on Saturday, here Barzal showed the threat to shoot, which made Markstrom hold his position leading to the goal.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Islanders are 6-0-0 against the West, extending their best start ever against the conference. It also matches their longest-ever win streak against the West, set in Oct/Nov2015.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On November 8, 1971, clothing manufacturer Roy Boe was awarded an expansion franchise by the National Hockey League. The deal became official when the NHL Board of Governors approved the purchase of the Long Island-based hockey franchise on December 30, 1971. Boe had previously owned the Julius Erving-led New York Nets of the ABA prior to purchasing the Islanders. Boe later owned AHL franchises in Bridgeport, Conn., and Worcester.
🎧 Up The Turnpike Episode 10 w/ Mitch Anderson & Matt O’Leary: Discuss the sixth defenseman, the Islanders’ hot offensive start, and answer questions.
🔗 Islanders’ start to the season: 9 stats that help tell the story so far, by Kevin Kurz, The Athletic: “Saturday’s lackluster performance in Detroit aside, the Islanders seem to be trending in the right direction. The red flags raised during a three-game losing streak were quickly lowered after they reeled off five straight wins against some of the top teams in the league.”
And we leave you with this …. fans are still coming to terms with the fact that Maxine Nightengale’s “Right Back Where We Started From” is no longer the win song at UBS Arena. During the post-game, Shannon Hogan explained why the change was made.
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.....actually MISSED this one, Joe - Eye On Isles didn't even send me a preview for it until THIS morning and, that CRUCIAL word you included about this evening's MSG game, was OMITTED from yesterday's notice: 'TONIGHT' - but was IMMERSED in re-reading a book, VERY controversial one of nearly three decades ago whose title I'll refrain from specifying.....as I noted there, very LEAST team could do is play STEVE's version as WELL from time to time (REVIVE Maxine every now & again, too - but hockey players ARE a SUPERSTITIOUS bunch.....LOL)