NEW YORK — There were more odd-man rushes and more open ice available than expected with the defensively sound Bruins facing the defensive-minded Islanders.
The Bruins’ lethal top line of Patrice Bergeron between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak did score twice. But so did Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and the Islanders kept the puck in the Bruins’ zone enough for a 4-2 win at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday night.
The Islanders, who extended their point streak to six games (3-0-3), took a season-high 42 shots on Tuukka Rask and have handed the Bruins (10-2-2) their only two regulation losses. Semyon Varlamov stopped 28 shots.
The East Division-leading Bruins, who beat the Rangers, 1-0, at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, played the final two periods down to five defensemen after Jakub Zboril exited with an upper-body issue.
Mathew Barzal, who drew a hooking call against Pastrnak at 4:09, gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead with a power-play one-timer from the left off Anders Lee’s cross-crease feed. Seconds earlier, Barzal, who extended his point streak to a career-high eight games, shot high from the same spot.
Pageau made it 4-2 with the Islanders’ first short-handed goal of the season, taking Leo Komarov’s feed on an odd-man rush and getting to the crease at 14:32 of the third period. Jordan Eberle had taken a sloppy high-sticking penalty on defenseman Jeremy Lauzon
Defensively, there have been some inconsistencies game to game even with the Islanders entering Saturday 10th in the NHL with 31 goals against (2.39 per game). Varlamov had three shutouts in his first nine starts and the Islanders ranked ninth in allowing an average of 28.3 shots per game.
That included a 1-0 win over the Bruins in the home opener on Jan. 18.
"I think all the Ds are using a lot of communication on the ice and it makes it so much easier on the forwards when we’re coming back," Pageau said. "It’s something that we’ve practiced a lot lately, our tracking coming back. It gives us a chance to have a good gap."
Sometimes, though, the best defense is a good offense, and Pageau’s line with Oliver Wahlstrom and Komarov along with Brock Nelson’s line with Eberle and Michael Dal Colle were particularly persistent in keeping the puck up ice and creating chances around Rask’s crease.
But the Islanders softened just enough toward the end of a solid second period for Bergeron to connect on a wrist shot from the right off a three-on-two rush at 16:51. Less than a minute earlier, Nick Ritchie corralled a flip pass at the Islanders’ blue line and broke in alone on Varlamov, beating the goalie but having his shot hit the crossbar and stay out.
A sluggish start to the first period — the Islanders iced the puck with frequency — led to a 1-0 Bruins lead at 8:41 as Matt Martin was caught on the ice for a shift lasting two minutes, six seconds and linemate Cal Clutterbuck was on the ice for 2:00. Marchand, hopping off the Bruins’ bench, was left open to skate through the slot and wrist a shot past Varlamov.
From there, the Islanders outshot the Bruins 13-3 the rest of the period and took a 2-1 lead.
Pageau tied the score at 1 at 11:36 as he and Komarov established position at the crease to knock in defenseman Ryan Pulock’s feed from the right wall.
Rask then misplayed Eberle’s shot from the right off a rush to make it 2-1 at 15:16. The puck deflected in off the inside of Rask’s right pad as Nelson’s primary assist made him the 22nd Islander to reach 300 career points.
