It’s called “two-in-a-row,” to paraphrase the great fictional baseball manager Lou Brown in Major League, and it’s something the Islanders hadn’t experienced in a bit.
After a season-worst six-game losing streak emphasized a miserable stretch that included 10 defeats in 11, the Islanders are heading to the eight-day All-Star break having swept a back-to-back with wins over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night before an overtime triumph over the Vegas Golden Knights — both at UBS Arena.
“I think if it went the other way the last two games, this week would have been tough,” star center Mathew Barzal, who scored the overtime winner on Saturday night, said. “So for us to kind of put ourselves right back in the mix is huge going into the break.”
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Rather than stewing for the next eight days about potentially hanging onto playoff hopes by a thread — and fueling discourse about the break-up of a long-time core at the trade deadline — the Islanders (25-22-5, 55 points) are now just two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final Eastern Conference Wild Card spot and three back of the Washington Capitals, who possess the first Wild Card spot. The Penguins, however, have played just 49 games compared to New York’s 52 while Washington has played just one game fewer than the Islanders.
“That was huge,” Barzal continued. “It kind of puts us right back in the hunt so I’m sure we’re going to be hungry to have a good start off the break.”
Winning has always been the ultimate cure for a team’s shortcomings, and the Islanders still scored just two goals in each of their wins. They haven’t scored more than two in each of their last seven games with a power play that is 3-for-its-last-64.
But the defense has begun to look like its old, structured self with the return and ensuing re-acclamation of top blueliner, Adam Pelech, who missed six weeks due to a head injury. Supported by the recent sterling goaltending of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov, the Islanders have allowed just three goals in their last three games.
“We’re not far behind. That’s the first thing,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “The second thing is that we went through a tough patch and we’re coming out of it. When we play the way we did [Friday] and play the way we did [Saturday], we can have a lot of success.”
There certainly is an opportunity for the Islanders to collect some more points on the other side of the break. Four of their next five games are against teams who don’t have records over .500. But at least for a few days, the Islanders can loosen the grip on their sticks a bit with the revelation that the last two games provided.
“It’s just a matter of us being rewarded for our efforts and having not been so much over the course of the last month,” Lambert said. “To me, it’s reassurance that we have a group here that can do great things.”
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