After taking a 4-0 lead, the New York Islanders had to make it difficult. After a wild third period, the Isles hung on to win 4-2.
It’s never easy, is it? What started off great left me shoveling Tums into my mouth as the New York Islanders did everything in their power to give this game away to their crosstown rival like they did on Thursday.
In the first period, we saw a rarity from the Islanders. Josh Bailey scored a power play goal. After an ice-cold power play the Isles finally broke through on an opportunity giving them a 1-0 lead. They weren’t done.
Just three minutes later, the Isles would head off on another power play and Anthony Beauvillier netted his 13th of the season.
Anthony Beauvillier just continues to score goals against the Rangers like it’s going out of style. Thanks to two power-play goals, the Islanders found themselves up 2-0 after two periods of play.
In the second, the Islanders got outshot 15-5 but they were the only ones to come away with a goal by the conclusion of the second frame. This time it was Anders Lee, who remains hot, picking up his 16th at the 9:52 mark of the period.
It appeared like Ryan Strome would net one for the Rangers but after further review, the play was deemed offside and we were blessed with a Wes McCauley announcement.
The Isles started the third period with a strong start. Josh Bailey set up Brock Nelson with a beautiful pass and Brock finished scoring his 20th goal of the season. Here’s where things went off the rails.
At the 12:39 mark Scott Mayfield took a double minor doe spearing Brendan Lemieux. Did Lemieux dive a little? Sure, but that’s not the point. Mayfield shouldn’t have put himself in that position to begin with.
On the double minor, the Rangers got goals from Pavel Buchnevich and Chris Kreider to make it a 4-2 game with just under five minutes to play. To make matters worse, the Isles almost immediately after that took a delay of game penalty.
Barry Trotz looked like he was on the verge of combustion on the bench. He was visibly frustrated with that call and the final few minutes of tonight’s contest.
To make matters worse, both Scott Mayfield and Matt Martin missed wide-open nets but finally, the Isles were able to close this one out and win 4-2 heading into the much needed 10-day break.
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Winners: Josh Bailey, Thomas Greiss, Mika Zibanejad
Losers: Alex Georgiev, Scott Mayfield, Mat Barzal