3 Takeaways: Islanders Shut Out Jets 4-0

The New York Islanders took care of business on Sunday afternoon, skating to a 4-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.
Bo Horvat (SHG), Alex Romanov, Brock Nelson and Adam Pelech (ENG) provided the offense, while Semyon Varlamov recorded 23 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Despite being far from a blowout, the Islanders were in control of the game from the drop of the puck, skating to their third win in four games, while sending the Jets to their fifth loss in their last six games.

It was an important win, as the Islanders (69 points, 63 games played) started and finished the day with a three-point cushion on the Buffalo Sabres (66 points, 58 games played) who scored a 7-4 win over the Washington Capitals to move into the second wild card. Buffalo still holds five games in hand. The Pittsburgh Penguins (65 points, 58 games played) play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night.
"The main focus is just take care of take care of our job and trying to win games and string as many together," Nelson said. "You're going to be scoreboard watching for sure, but we don't want to have to leave it up to that."

ISLES SET THE TONE WITH STELLAR FIRST PERIOD:

The Islanders came out with a purpose on Sunday.
They outshot the Winnipeg Jets 12-1 in the first period, marking the first time they'd held an opponent to one shot in a period since Apr. 8, 2022 vs Carolina. To boot, Winnipeg's lone shot came via a Brenden Dillon dump-in from 81 feet away, so it was a quiet period for Semyon Varlamov and a quietly effective one for the Isles.
"We like how we've been playing without the puck," Zach Parise said. "Tonight especially we were just jamming them through the neutral zone and you can tell we we're frustrating them a bit. Outside a couple of shifts, we really were not spending much time on our own zone. Tonight we were as good as we had been the whole season defensively."
ISLANDERS 4, JETS 0
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KINGER'S CALLS
Horvat's SHG
Romanov's Slapshot
Nelson's Wrister
Pelech's EN
The Isles walked out of the first period with a 1-0 lead courtesy of a shorthanded tally from Bo Horvat. Horvat rushed the puck up the ice and snapped a long-range shot through Josh Morrissey's legs and past David Rittich.
Horvat's goal was his 36th of the season and fourth shorthanded goal. It doubled as the Isles fourth shorthanded goal as a team as well.
Winnipeg responded in the second period, outshooting the Islanders 14-8 in the middle frame. Despite the Jets' push, Alex Romanov and Brock Nelson extended the Islanders lead to 3-0. Romanov buried his second of the season at 4:22 of the middle frame, beating Rittich with a slap shot from the point.
When Winnipeg seemed to be mounting extended pressure, Nelson snuffed it out, delivering a backbreaker at 18:41 of the period. Nelson gave Kyle Connor the old how-do-you-do? slipping the puck through the forwards legs as he cut into the slot and snapping his 27th of the season stick side on Rittich.
Nelson's goal was his eighth in the past nine games and also accounted for his 60th point of the season, marking a new career high. Instead of talking about a personal milestone, he called out linemates Zach Parise - who said he missed the goal because he was fishing himself out of the Jets bench - and Kyle Palmieri for taking hits, and opening up space for him.
Pelech iced the game with an empty-netter, banking a clearing attempt off the wall and down the ice for 200 ft.

VARLAMOV EARNS SECOND SHUTOUT OF SEASON

Semyon Varlamov said he was hungry to play on Sunday and after a 23-save shutout seemed to quell the goaltenders appetite.
For Varlamov, Sunday marked his first game since allowing six goals in a 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins and four to the Montreal Canadiens in an OT loss a week prior. Sunday's win was Varlamov's 11th of the season and first since Feb. 6.
"I felt good, but I didn't have a lot of shots in the first period," Varlamov said. "The team helped me to get through the first period without any like grade-a scoring chances."
While Winnipeg's shot totals were meager - and the Jets offense had run dry in the prior five games - the performance was a testament to Varlamov's focus, keeping himself in the game despite not feeling the puck through the first period and subsequent intermission.
The veteran netminder was ready for Winnipeg's first high-danger chance, a quick shot Pierre-Luc Dubois shot from the slot on the Jets second power play of the game.
"Sometimes it's easy sometimes it's very hard, it's depends on how you mentally prepare for the game," Varlamov said of staying focused. "I was very hungry to play today. So it was easy for me it was very hard to stay sharp."

BAILEY RETURNS

Josh Bailey returned to the lineup on Sunday after missing four games with an upper-body injury. Ross Johnston came out of the lineup to accommodate Bailey's return.
Bailey 14:10 with one shot attempt on a line with Arnaud Durandeau and Otto Koivula.
Lambert made changes to three of his four lines, moving Simon Holmstrom up alongside Bo Horvat and Anders Lee.
Matt Martin was reunited with Casey Cizikas and Hudson Fasching, which rounded out the line changes.

NEXT GAME

The Islanders wrap up their two-game cold city road trip in Minnesota when they take on the Wild on Tuesday night. Puck drop is at 8 p.m. eastern.