Recap: Islanders 3, Capitals 1

The New York Islanders kept pace in the unrelenting Metropolitan Division with a win over a divisional opponent, beating the Washington Capitals 3-1 at Barclays Center.
Brock Nelson, Andrew Ladd and John Tavares scored for the Islanders (17-10-3), while Jaroslav Halak made 31 saves in the team's return home after a taxing 1-2-1 road trip. Ladd wound up with the eventual winner, head coach Doug Weight credited a stellar night from Halak as the driving force behind the win.

"He was a huge percentage of the win tonight for us," Weight said of Halak, calling it the goalie's best game of the season.
Halak was steady throughout, but the Islanders also gave their goalie a lead to work with early. The Islanders opened the scoring 2:36 into the first period, as Nelson scooped a Cal Clutterbuck rebound, opened up Braden Holtby with a quick fake and banked the puck off the inside of the goalie's leg.

Nelson's goal marked the first time the Islanders had opened the scoring in six games and the Islanders improved to 11-0-0 when scoring first this season.
"It gets the crowd going and the bench energized," Ladd said. "Especially coming off a long road trip we all know those are tough games to come back home, the first one is usually hard energy-wise. To get that boost right off the hop it gave us that jump."
The Islanders had a disallowed goal late in the first period, but came out quickly again in the second, scoring a pair of goals in the opening 1:34. Calvin de Haan threaded a backhand pass through two Capitals to Andrew Ladd on the doorstep to make it 2-0 36 seconds into the period. Less than a minute later John Tavares made it 3-0, going undetected deep in Caps territory before depositing a heads-up feed from Josh Bailey.

Tavares' 18th of the season ended Holtby's night, as Philipp Grubauer finished the game in relief. Monday was Holtby's shortest outing of the season.
"Two goals back-to-back like that really put us in a good spot, killed any life or momentum they had and we just kept it going and carried it into the third," Tavares said.

Dmitry Orlov broke Halak's shutout bid with 11:37 to play in the third period, one-timing a two-on-one pass from Chandler Stephenson, but aside from that the Isles goalie was perfect. He made a few key stops on Alex Ovechkin, including a point-blank save on the NHL's leading goal scorer and one a powerful Ovechkin one-timer on a third-period power play.
"I felt good out there. Obviously it would be nicer to get a shutout, but a win is a win, two points at home and it was a good game by pretty much everybody," Halak said. "I just tried to be aggressive on the puck, look through screens the whole time and sometimes the puck just bounced my way."

HOME COOKING:

The Islanders improved to 9-1-2 at Barclays Center, remaining the only team in the NHL with one regulation loss.

PENALTY KILL:

The Islanders penalty kill held the fort on Monday going 2-for-2 and breaking a streak of seven consecutive games allowing a power-play goal. It wasn't a gimme either, as the Capitals entered the game with the league's seventh-ranked power play.
"We haven't gotten many results with the penalty kill lately so good job on sticking with it and looking at this as another opportunity today to change the narrative," Tavares said.

BOYCHUK MISSES 3RD STRAIGHT:

Johnny Boychuk missed his third straight contest on Monday. With Thomas Hickey on IR, Dennis Seidenberg drew into the lineup and Weight shook up his pairs. Scott Mayfield played on the top pairing with Nick Leddy, replacing Ryan Pulock, who skated alongside Seidenberg.
Weight said hopefully Boychuk will be ready to play Wednesday, but the coach said he wasn't sure about his defenseman's status.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders are back at home on Wednesday night, hosting the Dallas Stars. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.