Takeaways: Islanders Best Devils 5-1 in Fourth Preseason Matchup 

The New York Islanders put their best foot forward in their preseason home opener at UBS Arena with a decisive 5-1 victory against the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.

The Isles struck early and used the power play to get on the board. Fredrik Karlstrom wristed a feed from Sam Bolduc from the slot, beating Jake Allen cleanly to open the scoring at 2:19. Kyle MacLean extended the lead to 2-0 with a pretty breakaway goal at 9:23. A power-play tally from Bo Horvat and a goal from Liam Foudy extended the Isles lead to 4-0 by the 2:20 mark of the second period.

The Devils bit back when Timo Meier found the back of the net on the power play at 8:20 of the middle frame, but the Isles regained the four-goal advantage when Oliver Wahlstrom fired a shot from the left circle at 12:19.

Semyon Varlamov played the first two periods and turned aside 16 of 17, while Jakub Skarek stopped all eight shots in relief.

Jake Allen played the full 60 for the Devils, making 12 of 17 saves. The Devils are 0-4-0 in the preseason.

ISLES POWER PLAY COOKS

The power play was cooking on Friday night, going 2-for-5, as both units converted and paved the way for the win.

A makeshift combination of Dennis Cholowski, Sam Bolduc and Fredrik Karlstrom teamed up on the man advantage to open the scoring. The trio hasn’t spent much ice time together - let alone on the power-play – so the offense created was a positive.

"We have a lot of speed on the power play, and it was great to use that speed and try to make a play off the rush,” Cholowski said. “And Bolduc made a good play there for Karlstrom to deposit.”

The Isles mainstay power play personnel looked sharp on Friday night, which is an important sign even in preseason action.

Horvat, who led the Isles in power-play goals (10) last season, netted a goal late in the second period with a helper from Barzal, who led the team in power-play points (25) in the 2023-24 campaign. Dobson, who led with 23 power-play assists last season, contributed a secondary helper. The chemistry of the three was on full display with Horvat converting from his usual bumper role.

"I thought we moved the puck well, that goal by Bo [Horvat] was a really nice shot, but it was also a nice play, so that was nice to see," Roy said.

While Wahlstrom's goal came just after an Isles power play expired, Curtis Lazar had yet to rejoin the play, so while it wasn't officially a power-play goal, it came from solid work on the man advantage.

Roy noted early in Training Camp that special teams was a major point of emphasis for him, so he noted that seeing both units click was encouraging.

FOUDY-KARLSTROM-DUFOUR LINE STANDS OUT

The newer faces in the Isles organization made quite the impact.

Roy rolled the Foudy-Karlstrom-William Dufour line on Friday after he praised the trio’s performance on Tuesday night against the Rangers. The line is continuing to build chemistry, as the line combined for two goals and two assists in the win.

“I think all of us just want to go out there and try to impress everyone and try to play our game,” Karlstrom said. “I think it's natural. I feel like we’re different players, so every one of us just try to play our game and it suits us.”

Karlstrom, who was named the game’s first star,scored and skated 13:51, Dufour tallied an assist and two missed shots in 11:47, while Foudy scored and brought speed, recording a team-high three shots in 10:48 and earned the confidence of Roy to double shift him.

ODDS AND ENDS

Jakub Skarek came in for Semyon Varlamov to start the third period, stopping all eight shots faced. His performance on Friday coupled with his outing on Sunday impressed Roy, who said the 24-year-old is looking like he’s bouncing back from a statistical down year in Bridgeport last year.

“He did half of the game in New Jersey, and he played well, so we thought he deserved a chance to play [in the third period] tonight,” Roy said.

Alexander Romanov dropped the gloves with Curtis Lazar in the middle of the second period, but the Isles ended up on the man advantage after the scuffle. Travis Mitchell and Johnathan Kovacevic also got into it, with each defenseman receiving five-minute majors for fighting.

Maxim Tsyplakov sustained a lower-body injury midway through the third period, and left the game for precautionary reasons.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders have two days without a preseason game before they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night at UBS Arena. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.