NEW YORK _ The Islanders exited Brooklyn _ for now _ with yet another win, if not another one of their better outings.
They beat the Oilers, 5-2, on Saturday night at Barclays Center before a crowd of 14,812, the second largest of the season in the building, despite giving up three power plays in the third period and needing two late goals for a comfortable margin.
The Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders (35-17-6), who matched their win total from last season, will play their final 12 regular-season home games at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum.
Robin Lehner stopped 34 shots while former Islanders prospect Mikko Koskinen made 19 saves for the Oilers (24-29-5).
If the Islanders play again at Barclays this season, it will be starting with the second round of the playoffs after Friday's announcement the team would play at the Coliseum in the first round and in Brooklyn for all subsequent rounds. President and general manager Lou Lamoriello said coming back to the arena after two-plus months would not be an issue.
"I have not even a mindset on the future," Lamoriello said. "As far as it being the last game. It is what it is. It's just like any other game."
"At the end of the day, you're still on the same ice surface, the same size," right wing Josh Bailey added. "There's obviously some differences but I don't think in any way it would affect us in a negative way."
Anders Lee made it 4-2 on an odd-man rush at 17:44 of the third period and Brock Nelson added an empty-netter at 18:16.
Koskinen, 30, stopped 24 shots in Friday night's 3-1 loss at Carolina. He was selected 31st overall by the Islanders in 2009 and played four games for them in 2010-11. He spent the last four seasons in the KHL and is the Oilers' de facto No. 1 with Cam Talbot traded to the Flyers late Friday for 25-year-old goalie Anthony Stolarz.
Defenseman Ryan Pulock beat Koskinen with a power-play one-timer from the left circle to make it 1-0 at 3:02 of the second period and Valtteri Filppula tipped Nick Leddy's shot from the right point to make it 2-0 at 13:30. Pulock nearly made it a three-goal edge but his power-play shot from the left circle went off the near post and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pulled the Oilers within 2-1 with 2.3 seconds left in the second period by deflecting Kris Russell's shot from the right.
Mathew Barzal, tipping rookie defenseman Devon Toews' shot, made it 3-1 at 5:09 of the third period but the Oilers closed to within a goal again on Leon Draisaitl's power-play goal at 10:20.
The Oilers took 13 of the game's first 16 shots before the Islanders' attack finally thawed and they started generating chances. Indeed, the most memorable moment of the first period came when the car alarm for the SUV behind the glass went off.
