The New York Islanders came back home and came out with a much-needed win, as they beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Saturday night.
Kyle Palmieri (2G) and Brock Nelson (1G, 2A) scored for the Islanders, while Jake Neighbours scored the lone tally for St. Louis. Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves in his 100th career win, while Jordan Binnington made 28 of 30 saves in the loss.
The victory put an end to the Isles’ three-game winless skid (0-2-1) following a road trip where they went 1-2-2.
“Tonight we did a good job of focusing on the task at hand,” Kyle Palmieri said. “We weren’t thinking about Calgary or Detroit or Seattle. We were focused on getting the job done here at home.”
The Islanders were stingy out of the gate, holding the Blues scoreless through two periods while building a 2-0 lead. Nelson rushed into the Blues zone and dished the puck to Kyle Palmieri, who ripped a shot through Binnington from the slot to open the scoring at the 18:51 mark.
The Islanders power play, which was 1 for 12 in the last five games entering Saturday’s contest, converted on its second opportunity of the night. Maxim Tysplakov controlled the puck behind the net and found Nelson in the slot – who wristed the shot from his knees – to double the Islanders lead to 2-0 at 15:55 of the second period.
The Blues bit back in the third period. Neighbours, who scored the lone goal in a shutout 1-0 win for the Blues earlier this season against the Islanders, got the Blues on the board 45 seconds into the third period. Though the Blues pulled within one, the Islanders played well defensively.
“Even when they made it a 2-1 game when they scored on that power play, I was pretty confident that we’d do a good job,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “The way we were calm and played hard, that’s what we want to do.”
Noah Dobson’s blast from outside the right circle was successfully challenged and was disallowed for goaltender interference, keeping the score at 2-1. The waning minutes of the third period felt intense for the Isles - who entered the game tied for the league’s highest goal allowed in the final frame (29) - but Palmieri buried the empty-net goal for his second tally of the night.
“We’ve been talking the five-on-six, I wasn’t nervous about it,” Roy said. “I thought our guys played really well and it was nice to see Palms score the empty netter.”
Nelson made history with each point he scored on Saturday. With an assist on Palmieri’s first period goal, he tied Bob Bourne for 10th on the all-time franchise scoring leaderboard with 542 points, took sole possession of 10th with his second period power-play tally, then tied John Tonelli for ninth all-time with an assist on Palmieri's empty-net goal.
After three consecutive games where the Islanders built a lead and let it slip in the third period, closing out the win was important confidence-wise.
“It’s nice to close that one out,” Scott Mayfield said. “It’s been kind of a sore spot for us, and it’s a confidence booster that we can do it. Just go out there with that attitude and play our game.”
