Starting a crucial stretch of nine of 10 games at Nassau Coliseum, the Islanders beat the Sabres, 3-2, on Monday night to snap a two-game losing streak. Four of those home games will be against the East Division-trailing Sabres.
It wasn’t a pretty or perfect effort. But the Islanders still have gotten at least a point in every home game.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the winner on a power play at 15:08 of the third period, backhanding in the rebound of rookie Oliver Wahlstrom’s heavy slap shot from the top of the left circle.
Semyon Varlamov made 33 saves in another strong effort. The Islanders were limited to 11 shots in the first two periods before finding the target with 12 third-period shots.
Matt Martin, retrieving a loose puck in the offensive zone, had given the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 3:01 of the third period. But Anders Lee interfered with Riley Sheahan away from the puck at 4:17 and Sam Reinhart’s power-play goal at 5:48 as he swatted a rebound out of mid-air tied the game at 2.
The Islanders are 5-0-1 at the Coliseum.
"I just think there’s a comfort level being at the rink, the practice rink versus the opponent’s rink all the time or getting on a bus," Trotz said before Monday’s game. "That’s the only real difference. You have a little more freedom at home than you do on the road."
The Islanders are 4-6-2 on the road. They went 2-2-0 on their just-completed road trip, sweeping two games in Buffalo but losing twice to the Penguins.
The NHL has enacted enhanced COVID-19 protocols to try and navigate their teams through this shortened, 56-game regular season. On the road, players are limited to their hotel rooms when not at the arena or in team meetings. The team meals have been eliminated.
"Getting ready for games hasn’t really changed a whole lot," Cal Clutterbuck said. "The only thing that is different is you get two Q-Tips shoved up your nose in the morning (a rapid COVID-19 test) and there’s no people in the stands when you play. That’s the two differences as far as our routine goes. How we prepare, that’s all the same."
The Islanders were still being outshot 16-5 at 14:12 of the second period and had gone 19 minutes, 32 seconds without a shot before Mathew Barzal’s wrister at 3:44 after he exited the penalty box. Yet Lee’s team-leading eighth goal tied the game at 1 at 3:56 of the second period as he got to the crease and deposited a backhander past goalie Linus Ullmark with Barzal’s skating and stickhandling in the offensive zone helping to create the goal.
More representative of the Islanders’ luck was Pageau springing free to the crease at 17:57 of the second period but not being able to get a shot on net as the puck wouldn’t settle.
Similar to their well-played 3-2 loss in Pittsburgh on Saturday, the Islanders had more offensive-zone time early and were creating more chances to the crease. Yet they struggled to put the puck on net and wound up being outshot 12-3 and trailing 1-0 after one period.
Curtis Lazar tipped defenseman Henri Jokiharju’s wrist shot from the right point that was heading to the short side back past Varlamov to the far post at 17:15 of the first period.
The Sabres took 10 straight shots after defenseman Andy Greene had the Islanders’ last first-period shot at 4:12.
