Good Morning, Islanders Country.
3 wins in a row. That’s called a winning streak. It has happened before.
The Islanders are playing their best hockey of the season. Goals are coming from a variety of forwards, their defense is piling up the assists and the goaltending has been rock solid. For so many players, this has been a long-time coming. From Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri to Ryan Pulock and even Josh Bailey, confidence is soaring for the first time all season. There’s a tendency to think ‘what could’ve been’ or ‘what should’ve been’ but for the time being, it feels damn good to watch enjoyable and entertaining Islanders hockey.
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Coming up, Wahlstrom finally gets paired with Barzal, but will he again? Plus, you can bid on the Irish heritage jerseys, remembering when ‘18’ said he would retire (he stayed retired, unlike others), and guess what (or who)? an Islanders board game. But first, a recap of last night’s win.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders won their third straight game in regulation for the first time this season, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 on Sunday night at UBS Arena. Ilya Sorokin continued his great play at home, making 39 saves and Kyle Palmieri scored twice in the win. Palmieri and Anders Lee scored 25 seconds apart late in the first period to give the Islanders (24-24-8) a 3-1 lead after the first period before Palmieri scored his second at 17:25 of the second. Zach Parise also had a goal and Josh Bailey had two assists for his third straight multi-point game. John Gibson made 25 saves for the Ducks (27-25-10), who have lost the first four games of the five-game road trip (0-4-1).
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Mathew Barzal went between his skates again and again, it ended up in the net, this time with help from Zach Parise. Parise did the hard work behind the net and went straight to the net to be in position for the goal to make it 1-0.
🔶 After the Ducks tied the game at 1-1, the Isles took the lead in the final minute of the period. Anaheim was able to break up a cross-ice pass from JG Pageau, but Josh Bailey beat two Ducks to the puck and got it to Kyle Palmieri who beat Gibson short-side for a 2-1 Islanders’ lead.
🔷 25 seconds later, the red-hot captain scored a vintage Anders Lee goal. Parked at the top of the crease, Lee deflected a Ryan Pulock shot to give the Islanders a 3-1 lead at the 19:56 mark of the first period. The goal was Lee’s 21st of the season and his seventh in the last four games.
🔶 Scott Mayfield came down the wall, faked a shot, and then took the puck deeper into the corner before slipping a pass right on Palmieri’s stick for an absolute snipe over the right shoulder of Gibson and a 4-2 Islanders’ lead. Palmieri now has points in seven of the last eight games.
🔷 Ilya Sorokin had 39 saves on the night and none were better (and proved bigger) than these two saves on Cam Fowler. Sorokin first stretches far to make the initial save and then reaches out to make a paddle save to maintain a 4-2 lead in the third period. Sorokin is 11-1-2 in his last 14 games at home.
3 REACTIONS
❶ FINDING THEIR ENERGY: "Any time you have a good game or a couple of good games in a row you start to find your energy a little bit," Anders Lee said. "The room is lighter, it's not dragging on you. You look forward to the next game as much as possible and to keep that feeling going.”
❷ HOME CROWD: “It was loud in here tonight,” Josh Bailey said. “We’re giving the fans something to cheer about. It feels right, the way we’ve been playing. Things are clicking and it gives you a little added confidence.”
❸ STARTS IN NET: “Sorokin was unbelievable. He probably saved four goals, for sure,” Barry Trotz said. ”You can’t win in this league without good goaltending … We did a real good job at the end. Everyone stepped up. We got it done.”
⏭ NEXT UP: The Isles play a pair of road games against division rivals starting Tuesday night in DC. Face-off is at 7 p.m.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: It’s the line combination the world (or at least Islanders fans on social media) had been waiting for, Oliver Wahlstrom playing with Mathew Barzal. After Wahlstrom was a healthy scratch Friday night, Barry Trotz decided it was finally time to experiment by putting the sharpshooter alongside the play-making Barzal in his second game back since returning from a lower-body injury.
“He’s got a guy who can really shoot the puck in Wahlly,” Wahlstrom said of Barzal. “He’s had that with Kieffer. They both do that. Zach’s been a really good complement with Barzy all year when he’s played with him.”
"So, hoping it works. Just like anything, just by putting it on paper doesn’t make it work. We’ll see if Wahlly’s ready for that. If Barzy’s ready. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, we’ll just move on."
🤔 WELL, DID IT WORK? Mostly yes. Wahlstrom tied for a team-high five shots despite playing just 7:35 TOI, the least of any forward. Perhaps even more importantly, while at 5-on-5, the Wahlstrom-Barzal-Parise line played responsible defensive hockey, not giving much to the Ducks. As for the minutes, Trotz said that at least on this occasion, not to read too much into it.
“I wouldn’t look at that (Wahlstrom’s minutes). I’m going to look at their five on five. I mean, there’s a couple times where there’s a little more four and four and then special teams kick in…,” Trotz said. “If you ask me how did he play in this five on five minutes, I was happy with Wally’s game.”
👏🏻 900 AND COUNTING: Friday’s 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets was Barry Trotz’s 900th as an NHL head coach, behind only Joel Quenneville (970) and Scotty Bowman (1,244) in the league history. “Hall of Fame career for a Hall of Fame guy,” said Josh Bailey who scored twice after the game.
☘️ IRISH HERITAGE JERSEY AUCTION: As is tradition, the Islanders wore their kelly green St. Patrick’s Day jerseys during pre-game warmups ahead of March 17th. You can bid on the jerseys, which also come autographed by the player HERE through March 20th. Proceeds benefit the Islanders Children's Foundation.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Isles scored twice against a goaltender in the final 30 seconds of a period for only the second time in club history and the first time since they did so in the 2nd period of a game in Toronto on March 3, 1984. Perspective: the Isles have played over 2,900 games since that last happened.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On March 13, 1979, the Islanders’ first captain, Ed Westfall announced he would retire at the season’s end. Before the Islanders’ 7-2 win over the Boston Bruins, the Islanders held a pregame ceremony with Westfall's four children and wife on hand.
Following a 4-minute standing ovation, Westfall commented: “You get out there and you want to say the right things, all the things you thought of during the day and wanted to remember. Then you’re out there and you forget.” When he retired, Westfall was the leader in short‐handed Stanley Cup playoff goals with eight.
🔗 Mathew Barzal-Oliver Wahlstrom combination a Barry Trotz chemistry experiment by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Combining the developing Oliver Wahlstrom’s sharpshooting skills with Mathew Barzal’s playmaking may still be the ultimate goal for the Islanders. They started to find out on Sunday night.”
🎧 Weird Islanders: The Podcast! - Episode 6 - Sergei Nemchinov (with guest Nick Giglia) “Dan and Nick Giglia of invaluable referendum blog “Let There Be Lighthouse” talk about how Sergei Nemchinov was a winner who played for the Islanders at the wrong time.”
And we leave you with this ….it’s fun for the entire family!
A homemade Isles’ edition of “Guess Who?” courtesy @IslesGirl3’s awesome friend.
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