The Islanders were on pucks early and made the bigger plays late. In between was another strong stretch of five-on-five hockey against the reeling Capitals.
So, the Islanders will be going for the sweep for the second straight year in the first round of the playoffs after a 2-1 overtime win in Game 3 on Sunday.
"There's no tougher game than a game to clinch a series and it's going to be no different in Game 4," said Islanders captain Anders Lee, who has scored a goal in each of the three games against the Capitals. "It's going to be a tough game. We played a good one today."
Mathew Barzal punctuated the performance as he swooped over the blue line, cut to the crease and deposited a backhander at 4:28 of overtime for the win t Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Game 4 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. Last year, the Islanders swept the Penguins in the first round before being swept by the Hurricanes.
Only four teams in NHL history have rallied from a 3-0 series deficit. The Islanders did it against the Penguins in 1975 in the quarterfinals and the Kings, en route to the Stanley Cup in 2014, came back in the first round against the Sharks.
"I know it's a hard situation but it's not over yet," said Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who was held to one shot after scoring twice in the Islanders' 5-2 win in Friday night's Game 2. "We're never going to stop believing. L.A. did it. We won the Cup when we were down 2-0 against Columbus ."
A brilliant Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves for the Islanders, including two stops on Jakub Vrana's breakaway 40 seconds before Barzal's winner. Braden Holtby, easily playing his best game of the series, stopped 32 shots for the Capitals.
The only real negative for the Islanders was going 0-for-5 with six total shots on the power play. They could not convert on three chances in a first period in which they took nine of the first 11 shots and finished with a 14-6 shot advantage.
"They have a good penalty kill," said Islanders coach Barry Trotz, whose team is now 1-for-14 on the power play in the series. "We had some good looks. We didn't bury them. A couple of times we had some great looks but we just weren't quick enough. They were being aggressive."
Lee opened the scoring by getting to the right post and knocking in defenseman Adam Pelech's deft pass from the left point at 14:50 of the first period.
It was the first time the Islanders have scored first in this series as they had been outplayed in the first period of the first two games.
"That was definitely a point of emphasis," Pelech said. "We wanted to get out to a good start. Later in the game, Varly bailed us out."
The Capitals tied the score at 1 on their first power play as Evgeny Kuznetsov connected from the right circle at 5:50 of the second period after Leo Komarov and then Jean-Gabriel Pageau failed to clear the zone. The Islanders had just missed taking a two-goal lead 40 seconds before when Jordan Eberle hooked T.J. Oshie at 5:10 as Holtby turned aside Pageau's breakaway.
Varlamov stopped Tom Wilson's shorthanded try at the crease at 11:55 of the second period after the Capitals right wing shot wide on a breakaway attempt.
"I think we played a pretty solid game today," Ovechkin said. "We just didn't get a result. I'm pretty sure the next game is going to be a different game for sure. Obviously, for us right now it's nothing to lose, right?"
