Islanders display resiliency in comeback OT win over Flames
It’s not yet clear what these Islanders will end up being. But after another comeback win — with the Isles scoring three times between the third period and overtime to storm back and take two points from a game in which they were thoroughly outplayed for 40 minutes — their resilience, and their ability to compete with anyone in the league, is obvious.
And after Monday’s 4-3 overtime victory against the Flames on Noah Dobson’s game-winner — their third comeback win in five games and their fifth straight win over a 2021-22 playoff team — the Islanders are 8-5-0 and rightly feeling good about themselves.
“I think we got that feeling again where it’s just like, we can win any hockey game,” said Mathew Barzal, who finished the night with three assists on a team-leading 24:01 ice time. “Lost it a little bit last year. We never really could find those games and come back and have those moments during the year.
“And I feel like we’ve had one against Colorado. We’ve had one tonight.”
Anders Lee started the comeback with 9:52 to go in regulation, cleaning up the garbage on a rebound of Brock Nelson’s shot to pull the Islanders within a goal. Suddenly, a team — and a crowd — that had been quiet all night came alive.
Before the building had digested the 3-2 goal, Kyle Palmieri tied the game just 59 seconds later, prompting Calgary coach Darryl Sutter to use his timeout and the Islanders to keep playing with a gusto they lacked for the game’s first two periods.
And when overtime came for the first time this season, the Islanders came up with the winner, courtesy of Dobson, at four-on-three after Calgary defenseman Rasmus Andersson went off for interference with 1:45 to go in the extra period. That did not come without help, as Ilya Sorokin, who finished the night with 43 stops, had five excellent saves during the extra period.
“It’s a 60-minute game,” Lee said. “And we found a way tonight.”
It would be an understatement to say Calgary dominated the first two periods. At the first intermission, shots were 18-4 in favor of the Flames; at the second, they were 30-12. The Islanders struggled to transition the puck, lost battles and rarely played in the offensive zone. They entered the third with just one high-danger chance.
“Start was very bad and the finish was really good,” coach Lane Lambert said, plainly. “That’s really the only way to put it.”
After the Flames knocked on the door for the game’s first 11:16, Mikael Backlund finally put one home with a snap shot off Jonathan Huberdeau’s feed to the slot. The Islanders tied it on their first shot of the game, with Sebastian Aho cutting to the net and taking a feed from Barzal to make it 1-1 at 12:26, but that did not solve the underlying problems that plagued them through the opening stretch of the night.
In short order, the game was back in the Islanders’ defensive zone, and before long Elias Lindholm had tipped Noah Hanifin’s shot past Sorokin to put Calgary back in the lead before the first intermission.
Backlund struck again in the second period, walking into the slot and scoring bar down after a defensive-zone turnover to make it 3-1. To make matters worse, the Islanders played most of the game without Cal Clutterbuck, who did not return after skating just 3:32 in the first period.
That, though, helped prod Lambert to mix up the lines, putting Barzal with Lee and Nelson in what turned out to be a decisive move, as the trio accounted for a goal and an 8-1 shot margin at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick. And these Islanders never seem to be out of a game.
They are still figuring themselves out, and there are still steps to take if they are to contend for anything beyond a playoff berth.
Through 13 games, though, we can say this. These Islanders are fun, these Islanders are likable and these Islanders are resilient.
“Knowing, going into the third, we hadn’t had our best game and [knew] we could still do it,” Barzal said. “That’s kinda what the locker room’s like right now.”
