The Upshot: The Islanders rally again at home; defeat Calgary Flames 4-3 in OT

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Islanders rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period and came back to defeat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Monday night at UBS Arena. Noah Dobson scored at 4:02 of overtime off a pass from Mathew Barzal for the game-winner.

Barzal had three assists, and Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri scored in the third period for the Islanders (8-5-0), who have won six of their past seven games. Ilya Sorokin made a season-high 43 saves. Mikael Backlund scored twice, and Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves for the Flames (5-4-2), who have lost five straight.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The third period ... again. The Islanders now have a league-best 22 goals in the third period and have allowed the fewest goals in the final 20 minutes as well. For the second consecutive home game, they trailed a Western Conference Stanley Cup contender by two goals and rallied to steal two points.

Mathew Barzal had three assists and was the Isles' best forward throughout the night. After the morning skate, Barzal talked about how winning has helped ease the fact that he has yet to score a goal. "It would grate on me a little more if we were losing hockey games because of it, said Barzal. “The team’s been doing well, I feel like I’m setting up a lot of plays, and I like doing that, but at the end of the day, I have to score.”

Barzal now has 14 assists in 13 games - a better than a point-per-game pace. The goals will eventually come, but until then, setting up one or more a night will suffice.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The start was just awful. The Islanders looked slow and were being outplayed badly by the Flames for the first 40 minutes. The shots-on-goal were 18-4 after the first and 30-12 after two. The best thing you can say about the Isles was that they were only trailing by two goals in the third.

"We weren't playing well to our identity," Dobson said. "We weren't closing guys, we were slow to pucks, we didn't get any forecheck going."

Ilya Sorokin kept them in the game long enough to mount their rally, but you don't want a repeat of that slow start, especially on the road tonight at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.

STATS OF THE GAME

Per NHL PR, Noah Dobson scored his second career overtime winner to help the Islanders defeat the Flames. He tied Ryan Pulock for the most overtime goals among Islanders defensemen since he entered the NHL in 2019-20.

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

After the game, MSG Network's Shannon Hogan addressed the team's new win song, "High Love," as a popular one in the dressing room that the players wanted to share with the fans. It's hard for much of the fanbase to let go of the feel-good "Right Back From Where We Started From" by Maxine Nightengale, but the more they hear "Higher Love," the more they'll like it because it means more home wins.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Islanders are back on Tuesday against the rival New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM