The Upshot: The Islanders win fifth straight; beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2

HOW IT HAPPENED

Anders Lee and Brock Nelson each had a goal, and an assist as the New York Islanders won their fifth straight, defeating the St. Louis Blues 5-2 at Enterprise Center on Thursday. Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves, and Noah Dobson had two assists for the Islanders (7-4-0). Josh Bailey and JG Pageau (EN) also scored. Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Binnington made 25 saves for the Blues (3-6-0), who have lost six in a row.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The second period. After withstanding the Blues' push in the first with a lot of help of Sorokin, the Islanders scored four goals in a 10:04 span of the second, starting with Kyle Palmieri's deflection of a Noah Dobson shot 14 seconds in and started to roll from there.

Later, Dobson made a good keep at the line as the team's 5-on-3 PP expired, and found Lee behind the D who quickly set up Nelson for the goal and a 2-1 lead.

"“The mood is up. The guys are feeling good about themselves, I think our team is going well. We have four lines rolling. We keep coming at you. We’re in a good stretch right now. We’ve got to keep it going.”"

Noah Dobson

“It was a good keep by Dobber,” said Nelson, who has now scored in four straight. “They were close to springing him there and having a break.”

WHAT WENT WRONG

The first period, but with a silver lining. Coming into the game, the Blues had lost five straight and were going to play a desperate brand of hockey. They took the lead at 8:17 of the period when Tarasenko converted Torey Krug's shot that came off the boards and to the other side of Sorokin.

""I thought we weathered a storm. Our goaltender played really well for us. Then I thought we came out in the second period and we had a real good start. So I did like our resolve.""

Lane Lambert

The deficit - and perhaps the game would've went differently if it wasn't for Sorokin. At 15:24 of the period, he was able to stick out his right pad and stop Jake Neighbours to keep it a 1-0 game.

STATS OF THE GAME

Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Islanders have now scored an empty net goal for the fourth straight game, the first time that’s happened in team history. It’s also the first time the team has won their first five games against Western Conference competition since the Eastern and Western conferences were created for the 1993-94 season.

Two Islanders earned milestones on Anders Lee's second-period goal as Brock Nelson earned his 400th point and Anthony Beauvillier recorded his 100th assist. Mathew Barzal has seven assists in the last six games (0-7-7).

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Isles are back on the ice in Detroit to take on the Red Wings in a Saturday matinee.

Puck drop is set for 1:00 PM.