3 Takeaways: Isles Score Six, Rack Up Sixth-Straight Win

Sunday night marked the sixth-straight win for the New York Islanders, who put themselves back in a playoff position with a 6-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri, Brock Nelson (PPG, A), Bo Horvat (1G, 1A), Pierre Engvall and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders (72 points), who leapfrogged the Detroit Red Wings (72 points) and are in a playoff position for the first time since Jan. 13. The Isles and Wings are tied in points, but the Isles have played one fewer game.

“We just want to keep it rolling,” Palmieri said. “This is a big trip for us and we're playing good hockey right now, so we'll enjoy this one for a couple minutes and get ourselves ready for tomorrow.”

Semyon Varlamov stopped 22 of 23 to snap an 0-4-2 stretch, while Lukas Dostal stopped 13 of 19 in the loss. Alex Killorn scored the lone goal for the Ducks.

The Islanders six-game winning streak is the team’s first since a nine-game run from Feb. 28 – Mar. 14, 2021 and the team’s first five-game regulation winning streak since Oct. 26 – Nov. 3, 2022. The five-straight regulation wins follows a 20-game stretch that saw the Isles only score two regulation wins. While the job isn’t finished, the Isles are feeling good about where their game is at.

“Each game we have a mentality to go in there and be the hardest working group,” Cizikas said. “Guys are buying into that and we're coming away with big points right now.”

ISLES GET GOALS FROM ALL FOUR LINES:

The Islanders offense continues to roll, as all four lines scored on Sunday night. After 13 different Isles hit the scoresheet in San Jose, 12 different players recorded a point in Anaheim.

“It showed that the depth that we have, and it was it was important to find a way to win that game,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “Sometimes you take those games for granted, and that's not exactly what our guys did not do.”

The Islanders built a 3-0 lead before the game was 15 minutes old, with Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson all netting early tallies. Cizikas opened the scoring at the 5:11 mark, as Simon Holmstrom took the puck from Gustav Lindstrom in the corner and fed an open Cizikas for a one-timer in front of the net. The Isles have now opened the scoring in five of their last six contests.

Palmieri extended the Isles lead 2:17 later, batting down a Mike Reilly stretch pass before beating Lukas Dostal with a nifty breakaway move. The goal was Palmieri’s 20^th of the season, marking the sixth time in his career he’d hit the 20-goal mark, but first since 2019-20.

The Isles fast play led to several power-play opportunities and New York eventually converted on its third opportunity. Mathew Barzal passed the puck off the boards to himself to retain possession before Nelson and Horvat dished back and forth with Nelson pulling the trigger from the slot to make it 3-0 at 14:28. 

“We want to go out and get off to a good start and focus on those first couple shifts to get everyone into it,” Palmieri said. “The way up and down the lineup the different lines have contributed it's something that's really encouraging as we move forward into the last quarter of the season here.”

After a sleepy second period, the Isles padded their lead with a trio of third period goals. Horvat netted his 26^th of the season 34 seconds into the final frame, collecting a fanned shot by Nelson and beating Dostal. It was the second time in the contest and Horvat, Nelson and Barzal hooked up on a goal. Engvall effectively iced the game, using his speed to blow down the wing before beating Dostal at 7:56, but Clutterbuck filled out the Isles offensive bingo card, burying a feed from Matt Martin and Kyle MacLean at 18:12

VARLAMOV SOLID IN FIRST WIN SINCE DEC. 13

Semyon Varlamov picked up his first win since Dec. 13, stopping 22 of 23 and while he’s only had eight starts (including Sunday) over that span, there was a sense of relief to bank a W.

“It's been a long time,” Varlamov said. “I’m very happy to get the chance to play today. I felt pretty good like from the beginning and I’m just glad we won.”

Varlamov’s contributions may have been overshadowed by another explosive night for the Isles offense, but the veteran goalie was solid when he needed to be. The game could have easily taken on a different tenor had Varlamov not gotten across his net to deny a backdoor try from Ducks leading scorer Frank Vatrano.

The only shot to beat Varlamov was an Alex Killorn snipe 24 seconds into the middle frame, but the Isles goalie rebounded with nine saves in a second period that saw the Isles without a shot on goal until the 13:38 mark. Varlamov had a key stop on Troy Terry on a two-on-one rush and another backdoor stop on Vatrano during an Isles penalty kill.

“He's been working so hard in the practices, so the guys gave him a nice win today,” Roy said. “I was happy for him. He deserved that.”

POINT STREAKS CONTINUE:

In addition to the team’s overall winning streak, a series of individual streaks continued on Sunday.

Mathew Barzal (2A) extended his point streak to seven games (3G, 6A) with the secondary assists on Nelson’s power-play goal and Horvat’s tally in the third periods. Barzal’s assists were the 304^th and 305^th of his career, passing Bob Bourne for sole possession of 11^th all-time in Isles history.

With a power-play goal and an assist, Nelson extended his point streak to five games, with 10 points (4G, 6A) over that span. Horvat’s goal extended his goal streak to three games and his overall point streak to four games with eight points (3G, 5A) over that span.

The Isles scored five-or-more goals for a fourth time in the past five games and scored three-or-more for the sixth-straight. Sunday also marked the sixth straight win for the Isles over the Ducks, sweeping the season series for a third straight year.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders take on the LA Kings on Monday night to wrap up their back-to-back set. Puck drop is at 10:30 p.m. et.