Nelson scores twice, Islanders gain in East race with win against Devils

UNIONDALE, N.Y. --Brock Nelson scored two goals, and the New York Islanders gained ground in the MassMutual East Division with a 5-1 win against the New Jersey Devils at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday.

"I like the way we played tonight," New York forward Jordan Eberle said. "We grinded and battled for the most part and got back to our identity. That's the identity you want to stick with."
The Islanders (32-17-6) are in fourth place in the East and moved within one point of the Boston Bruins, who lost 5-4 to the New York Rangers on Saturday. The Islanders can move into third when they play their regular-season finale at Boston on Monday. The Bruins have a game in hand.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals clinched first and second place on Saturday.
"This division is very capable of a 4-seed beating a 1-seed or a 3-seed beating a 2-seed," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "You don't know. You want to play well, get as high as you can. … You want to feel good. You want to be healthy and you want to be playing a decent game going into the playoffs."
Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist, and Kyle Palmieri scored his first goal in 13 games for the Islanders (32-17-6), who ended a three-game skid. Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves.
Andreas Johnsson scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 22 saves for the Devils (19-29-7), who won their previous two games and five of seven.
"They just played way harder," Johnsson said. "Heavy forecheck. I don't know how many pucks we passed away. ... Not a good game at all."
It was the last scheduled regular season game at Nassau Coliseum, which has been the Islanders home for 1,738 games since 1972. They're expected to move into UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, next season.
"We mentioned it, we talked about it," Eberle said. "We wanted to obviously finish off in the win column. This building has a lot of history behind it, a lot of teams, some Cups won here."

Eberle gave New York a 1-0 lead at 18:01 of the first period, scoring with a high shot from inside the left circle off a criss-crossing rush play with Barzal. It started with Leo Komarov forcing a turnover along the wall in the defensive zone.
Johnsson tied it 1-1 at 4:58 of the second period on a one-timer from the left circle. It was Johnsson's first game after missing six with a lower-body injury.
"He was the one guy that I thought was almost close to back up to speed," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "You could see his energy level was a lot greater than some of the other players on our team."
Nelson scored a power-play goal off a net-front rebound created off a one-timer from Oliver Wahlstrom to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 9:00. It was his first goal in nine games.
He scored again from in front of the net at 12:40 to make it 3-1.
"When you get into the offensive zone, you have to value net-front, someone at the net," Trotz said. "You have to make yourself dangerous. In the first period we played really well, but I thought their goaltending saw too many pucks. As the game went on, I thought we did a better job of getting in front. You look at the goals Brock got, he's standing basically on the net."
Palmieri scored his first goal since April 11 to make it 4-1 at 3:32 of the third period. Wahlstrom flipped the puck up to Palmieri and he chased it down, protecting it before going to his backhand.
"I loved the way he played today," Trotz said. "What I saw today is the Kyle Palmieri that I've seen as an opposing coach. I love when he plays with that edge. He was skating, he was in the battle, he had a lot of detail to his game. He played quick and he got rewarded."

Barzal scored 37 seconds later at 4:09 for the 5-1 final.
The Devils end their regular season at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
"I'm hoping that we have more energy than we did tonight," Ruff said.
NOTES: Nelson played his 300th consecutive game. … Josh Bailey's assist on Nelson's second goal was the forward's 349th, tying John Tavares for fifth in the Islanders history. … Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler played 17:58 in his return after missing eight games while on the NHL COVID-19 protocol list. … The Islanders finished 21-4-3 at home, their best home record through 28 games since 1981-82. They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and 48-for-52 (92.3 percent) here, the best PK percentage on home ice for a single season in their history.