New York Islanders Defeat Stars 3-1 (Highlights)

The New York Islanders end their road trip with a 3-1 record and a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars before heading into the Christmas break.

For the first three games of the road trip, the New York Islanders were 2-1 and headed into the night looking to finish up their road trip with a win heading into their Holiday break. Things didn’t start off great for the Islanders though.

In the first period, they had two power-play opportunities. Neither of them were successful and on the second one the Islanders ended up getting no shots on the man advantage. There would be no scoring for either team in the first and both Dallas and New York had seven shots on goal.

In the second period, the Dallas Stars jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to Tyler Pitlick. Pitlick was able to get Lehner to bite and slide the puck around Lehner and into the net for a goal. Dallas’ Alexander Radulov for some reason didn’t want to play too much tonight.

In the first two periods alone, Radulov, a top line player mind you, took four penalties. Two of which were because Leo Komarov got under his skin.

Back at five on five, Casey Cizikas netted his ninth of the season.

It wasn’t pretty by any means but it was certainly effective for Cizikas who is having a career year. His previous career high in goals was nine in the 2014-2015 season, he’s on pace for 21 goals which would blow his career high out of the water.

In the third period, the Islanders would dominate once again. On their third power play chance they finally buried one, this time thanks to Anders Lee. Lee now has 13 goals on the season and is on pace for 30 goals now.

For good measure, Leo Komarov (fitting) would add an empty net goal and the Islanders rolled in Dallas 3-1.

Robin Lehner wasn’t tested often, he faced just 20 shots, but when tested he was effective stopping 19 of 20 for a .950 save percentage. Cal Clutterbuck also left the game with an injury which may be something to monitor going forward.

The Islanders head into the holiday break with a 18-13-4 record and they’re very much in the mix for a playoff spot. If you told me they’d be in the mix for the playoffs by Christmas I wouldn’t have believed you, yet here we are.