Islanders Forgotten Game: October 12 2019 vs Panthers

The 2019-2020 Islanders had a 17 game point streak. Let’s look back on the game that launched the streak, October 12 vs Florida.

The Islanders had a slow start to their season this past year. They were cold out of the gate, starting 1-3 and allowing five goals in back to back losses before taking on the Panthers on October 12.

We didn’t know it at the time, but this game would launch a 17 game point streak and looking back, it was one of the more fun games on the season.

Things didn’t start off so hot for the Isles. They allowed a goal 5:34 into the game from Denis Malgin. It was a typical start for New York as they would start slow, and then come on later in the game.

The Isles would get an early power play opportunity in the second, unsuccessful, but shortly after that, Anders Lee found the back of the net for his second goal of the season.

Ironically it wasn’t a typical Lee goal, it was a one-timer. Ross Johnston instead (why he was out with Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal I’m not quite sure) was doing his thing in the front of the net and Lee took the slot.

Well, Lee showed off his shooting ability and was able to get one past Sam Montembeault to tie the game up in the second. As time was ticking down in period two, the Isles would take the lead.

Adam Pelech intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and fed it up to Jordan Eberle who went in with Mat Barzal and Josh Bailey three-on-two. Bailey makes a nice play to settle the puck and beat Montembeault top shelf on the glove side.

The strong second didn’t carry over into period number three. Instead, it was Florida who had 14 shots in the period to the Isles five. Eventually, Semyon Varlamov couldn’t hang on anymore and Evgenii Dadonov would tie it up at 13:58.

In OT, the Isles would have three shots to the Panthers one but weren’t able to capitalize so they’d settle for a shootout. Brock Nelson had the lone goal in the shootout to give the Isles a 3-2 win. In Varlamov’s first win as an Islander he had 35 saves and a .946 save percentage.

This was the start, as we know, of a dominant run for the Isles. There’d be more dramatic wins over the season, and more specifically this stretch run, but you can’t forget where you started.

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