The Islanders now have the second-longest winning streak in franchise history at 10 games.
And that might not have been the most noteworthy item to come out of Tuesday night's 4-1 win over the Senators before a crowd of 11,212 at Barclays Center, their first game of the season in Brooklyn.
Take a look at this: Cole Bardreau, the 26-year-old rookie whose career was nearly derailed in college, became the seventh player in NHL history to score his first goal on a penalty shot. Or, Cal Clutterbuck scoring his first goal in 32 games. Or, Casey Cizikas scoring shorthanded for his first goal of the season.
The Islanders (11-3-0), starting a season-high four-game homestand with three straight at Barclays, also got 27 saves from Thomas Greiss, who won his fifth straight start.
The Islanders surpassed the nine-game winning streak from Dec. 31, 1989 to Jan. 19, 1990, which they equaled with Saturday night's 1-0 win at Buffalo. The franchise record is a 15-game winning streak from Jan. 21 to Feb. 20, 1982.
Craig Anderson made 28 saves for the Senators (4-9-1), who beat the Rangers, 6-2, at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
But the Islanders broke open a 2-1 game with two third-period goals within 40 seconds.
First, Clutterbuck fed Cizikas on a shorthanded rush at 10:00 for the Islanders' second shorthanded goal this season. Then, Josh Bailey tipped rookie defenseman Noah Dobson's shot from the right point to make it 4-1 at 10:40.
Bardreau, in his seventh NHL game, was tripped from behind by defenseman Mark Borowiecki after being sprung for a breakaway at 15:34 of the second period. It was a no-doubt penalty shot.
He took the puck at center ice, swung out to his left before bringing the puck to his forehand and heading to the crease, beating Anderson from between the faceoff dots with a wrist shot to the goalie's stick side. The Islanders also had a penalty shot goal in their 4-2 win at Ottawa on Oct. 25, that one from now-injured defenseman Nick Leddy, who missed his second game with a lower-body issue. It marked the first time the Islanders have scored two penalty shot goals against the same opponent in one season.
It was an improbable first career goal in what, at one point, seemed like an improbable career for Bardreau. He spent the past five seasons in the Flyers' organization without being recalled, in part because of injuries, and suffered a broken neck as a Cornell sophomore that left him in danger of being paralyzed.
The Islanders did not take a shot until defenseman Ryan Pulock's blast on a shaky power play at 7:26 of the first period. But it was Pulock's turnover deep in the Islanders' zone after a miscommunication with Dobson that set up a wide-open Jean-Gabriel Pageau to lift a shorthanded goal over Greiss to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 7:44.
Clutterbuck, though, shoveled in the puck off a scramble at the crease just 39 seconds later to make it 1-1 as he scored his first goal since Feb. 23, shortly after starting to feel the debilitating effects of back damage that required offseason surgery.
