The New York Islanders have split two of four contests thus far and will look to add a second straight win Saturday night when they host the hot Tampa Bay Lightning.
The matchup will be the middle one of a three-game homestand. The Islanders flirted with back-to-back home shutouts in Thursday night’s 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in a fiery match at the end.
On the bench as the buzzer neared, Anthony Duclair watched captain Bo Horvat, the match’s First Star, score an empty-netter then take a nasty head shot from Chicago’s Frank Nazar.
It started a huge scrum that ended with New York’s Jean-Gabriel Pageau flattening Tyler Bertuzzi onto the ice at the bottom of the pile.
“Those are non-negotiables,” said Anthony Duclair of the hit in a MSGSN postgame interview on the home bench as the crowd rained down ‘Duke’ chants. “Any time a player goes down, especially our captain, you want to step up for him. We’re a band of brothers in there, and we’ll always stand up for each other.”
Added coach Peter DeBoer: “I mean, you don’t like that hit, especially at that time of the game and who it’s on.”
Duclair scored his first goal, while Horvat netted two and leads the club with five points (four goals, one assist).
Goaltender Ilya Sorokin (2-1-0, 1.01 goals-against) has stopped 59 of 60 shots in winning the two home contests.
After defenseman Alexander Romanov was lost for the season following an ACL tear in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the New York Rangers, Scott Mayfield drew in to the rear guard.
“The whole D corps was really good tonight,” said DeBoer. “I liked how we broke the puck out. I like how we defended. (Mayfield) came in and gave us some solid minutes, and I thought it was Tony DeAngelo’s (and Ryan) Pulock’s best games of the year.”
Also on Thursday, the Lightning won their third straight, all on home ice, by topping the Minnesota Wild 3-2, leading by a pair early and holding off the Western Conference club.
Coach Jon Cooper’s club turned to the blue line for offense in the victory.
Two first-period tallies came directly from the group as Anthony Cirelli tipped in defenseman Erik Cernak’s point shot, while new blue-liner John Carlson netted the first of his two goals off a deft pass from Nikita Kucherov. Carlson finished the scoring by potting his team’s first power-play tally (1-for-16, 6.3%).
“They have really good guys, and it’s hard to beat them one-on-one,” Cernak said. “If you can shoot from the blue line, it’s always nice. We’ve gotten a couple of goals like that and have to keep doing it.”
Kucherov (one goal, five assists) dished out two in the win and has produced points in all four games. The right winger notched the 320th multipoint game of his career and tied him with Bernie Federko for 66th in the top NHL point producers of all time.
The reigning Hart Trophy winner has produced 1,130 career points and needs just eight more to pass Steven Stamkos, who set the franchise record in 16 seasons with Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay’s two-game Empire State road trip finishes Tuesday with a rematch in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, who pounded the Lightning 5-1 on opening night on Oct. 1.
