The Islanders hung with the champs on Saturday night. And after a stunning three-goal comeback, Anthony Beauvillier landed the knockout blow.
If there is a statement to make so early in the season, this is it: Islanders 5, Avalanche 4.
The Islanders (5-4-0) now will embark on a Midwest road trip following a streak of victories over three of the top teams from the 2021-22 season: an Eastern Conference finalist (the Rangers), the Metropolitan Division champs (Carolina) and the Stanley Cup champs (Colorado) in their back pockets.
Given where the Islanders were a week ago, looking out of sorts on the heels of three straight losses in which they were badly outplayed twice, this might be better than any scenario coach Lane Lambert could have imagined.
Beauvillier scored the go-ahead goal with 9:03 left, coming off the rush just 17 seconds after teammate Scott Mayfield had tied the score at three. Just three minutes earlier, the Islanders had whiffed on a chance to tie it up with a man advantage, but they kept asking questions of Alexandar Georgiev in Colorado’s net.
Finally, Georgiev couldn’t come up with an answer when Mathew Barzal fed Mayfield on the backdoor at 10:39. And Beauvillier, on the rush, didn’t think twice to take the shot when the chance presented itself mere seconds later. When Beauvillier’s goal went in, it was — by some margin — the loudest UBS Arena has sounded in its short life.
Going into the third period trailing by two goals, it took the Islanders under four minutes to pull within one after Zach Parise cleaned up the garbage on Ryan Pulock’s shot from the point at 3:35. Then the game fell straight off its hinges.
Semyon Varlamov, who made 40 stops on the night, deserves a share of credit as well. After Beauvillier’s tying goal, there were still nine minutes to go — and the Islanders needed everything from Varlamov to get through it, including a huge save at the doorstep on Andrew Cogliano with just over two minutes to go.
With 1:21 to go in the third, Brock Nelson deposited the puck into an empty Colorado net to seal the victory. Alex Newhook got one back for the Avalanche with 30 seconds to go, but it was in vain.
A 10-minute flurry in the second period gave Colorado a lead that looked to have all but sealed the game in its favor.
Evan Rodrigues scored just 46 seconds into the period, breaking the Islanders’ perfect streak on the penalty kill with a free look from the slot. After the Islanders failed to score on a power play of their own, they lost Mikko Rantanen out of the box and let him get free on a breakaway to make it 2-0 at 7:28.
Just over a minute later, it was Rodrigues again, deflecting a shot from MacKinnon for a 3-0 lead.
Noah Dobson got one back at 9:53 to make it 3-1, but after Georgiev came up big to keep the score that way going into the third period, it looked as though the Islanders’ best chance at a comeback had come and gone.
So much for how things look.
Just nine games into the season, the Islanders are still figuring themselves out. There are sure to be more ups and downs to come. But it is hard to not get excited over a win like this. After such a disappointing 2021-22 season, the win Saturday might be the Islanders’ best since Beauvillier nearly brought the Nassau Coliseum’s roof down in overtime of Game 6 against the Lightning in 2021.
And that is not damning with faint praise.
Not only did the Islanders beat the Avalanche, but also they deserved to win. They were not outperformed, they were not outskated. Both teams came in on a back-to-back, and it was the Islanders — not the Avalanche — with a backup goaltender in net. After the Avalanche were shut out by the Devils in Newark on Friday, it figured they would come out with an extra oomph to their game.
The Islanders had enough in their bag to counter it, and more.
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