The Islanders got back to business on Saturday night.
Not just playing hockey after the NHL players initiated a two-day shutdown of the playoffs to protest social injustice. But by playing the way they're so comfortable playing.
They outskated and squeezed the Flyers in a 3-1 win in Game 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto to take a 2-1 series lead while showing their lineup balance, and getting crucial goals from bottom-six forwards Matt Martin and Leo Komarov.
Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves, his biggest was robbing Joel Farabee at the crease with his pad at 10:02 of the third period to preserve a two-goal lead. He also made four, in-tight saves on the Flyers' lone power play late in the third period, with the Flyers skating six-on-four with after goaltender Carter Hart was pulled for an extra skater.
Varlamov rewarded coach Barry Trotz's decision to go back to him after allowing three goals on 10 shots in 15:09 of the Islanders' 4-3 overtime loss in Wednesday's Game 2.
Hart stopped 26 shots for the Flyers.
But there's no time to think too much about Saturday's result. Game 4 is Sunday night.
"Not really," Islanders right wing Cal Clutterbuck said when asked if that presented any added difficulties. "If you look at the course of a regular season, back-to-backs are a pretty popular thing. They happen all the time. If anything with back-to-backs, you almost feel better on the back end. Quite frankly, I think there is more reading into back-to-backs than the actual situation itself. We know how to handle it and it's really not that big a deal."
Similarly, despite the unique circumstances of the previous two days, re-focusing on hockey was not a concern to the players.
"We've had a couple of days to recover," Islanders right wing Jordan Eberle said about re-focusing on hockey. "We've had some good discussions over the last day and that will continue. You switch your focus right away to the Flyers, A week here to play a best-of-five."
Eberle got his second assist of the game as he fed captain Anders Lee for a power-play goal to make it 3-1 at 3:41 of the third period. Lee slipped a backhander past Hart, who had the puck deflect off his stick as he anticipated a pass to Mathew Barzal.
The winner of the Islanders-Flyers series will face either the Lightning or the Bruins in the Eastern Conference final, which will be played in Edmonton. The Lightning took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 3-1 win in their Game 4 on Saturday.
The Islanders' 2-1 lead going into the third period on Saturday wasn't commanding, but it was indicative of how dominant they were in the second period.
Still, the Flyers nearly made it to the second intermission with the game tied. But Derick Brassard, keeping the puck in the Flyers' zone and then retrieving his own rebound, outmuscled defenseman Matt Niskanen for the puck behind the crease and, while falling to the ice, found Komarov open in the low slot. Komarov's backhand trickled past Hart and just over the goal line with 5.1 seconds remaining.
Martin had tied the game at 1 at 7:12 of the second period on a similar setup, as Barzal dug the puck out of the right corner to feed him between the circles.
The Islanders started sluggishly for the second straight game, though not to the detriment of their 3-0 deficit in Game 2. This time, Tyler Pitlick's shot from the left wall through traffic at 14:18 of the first period gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead. The Islanders then took 14 of the game's next 15 shots, including Martin's goal.
Hart made his best first-period save at 17:58, lunging forward to get some of his glove on Brock Nelson's shot from below the right circle and tip it high off Josh Bailey's too-selfless feed from an open spot in the slot.
The winner of the Islanders-Flyers series will face either the Lightning or the Bruins in the Eastern Conference final, which will be played in Edmonton.
The Lightning took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 3-1 win in their Game 4 on Saturday.
