The Islanders snatched their second win in a row last night, a huge milestone because it’s the first time all season they’ve managed that. They took down the Anaheim Ducks 3-2, shaking off some injury worries for at least one night against a team they absolutely needed to beat.
The Scare That Almost Sank ‘Em
Man, though, did they try to make it interesting at the end! For most of the game, they were sitting pretty with a two-goal lead. They even had a chance to seal it at 3-1 with an empty net, but totally whiffed on it. And guess what? That came back to haunt them!
With less than three minutes on the clock and the Ducks rocking a sixth attacker, Alex Killorn buried a pass from Leo Carlsson,yeah, the $90 million man’s ninth assist already,to slice the lead to a terrifying 3-2. Then, in the dying seconds, Anaheim even clanged one off the post. Talk about heart attack material, am I right? Seriously, tragedy was barely averted there.
Shoutout to Ilya Sorokin though. He only had to make 15 saves, but dude, some of them were absolutely clutch. One save in particular was straight up outstanding and actually sparked the Isles’ first goal. That’s the kind of play that changes momentum.
“Palat Good Again?” and DeBoer’s Take
So how’d they get those goals in the first place? Well, the first one came at 13:39 in the first period, a pretty slick play after a lucky bounce in the neutral zone. Anthony Duclair hit J-G Pageau with a nifty slip pass, Pageau then dished a cross-slot feed, and Ondrej Palat, after settling a bouncing puck, beat Lukas Dostal. Palat good again? For now, it sure looks like it!
Just five minutes later, they doubled that lead. After a Matt Kessel pinch, Victor Eklund, who’d just lost a size mismatch battle in the corner, somehow sprinted to the net and backhanded a rebound from a point shot. That’s his second NHL goal, what a hustler!
The Ducks tried to rally with Frank Vatrano getting one back pretty quick. But before the first period even wrapped up, Simon Holmstrom restored the two-goal cushion, tipping in a Matthew Schaefer point shot on the power play. Schaefer’s already got eight assists this season, that’s production right there.
The second period? Pretty quiet, low event, outside of Mitchell Chaffee dropping the mitts in his Isles debut. And the third period? Even quieter. You can really see Pete DeBoer’s vision for a suffocating, frustrating team defense starting to click. Even he said it: “The last two games are probably our most complete 60-minute games. Other than sticking the puck in the net, we couldn’t have done much more. We did let them hang around because of our lack of finish.” He’s not wrong about the finish part!
Next up, the Islanders host the other LA team, the Kings, on Thursday. The Kings are only sitting on one win so far this season, so the Isles definitely need to bring that “complete game” energy again and maybe, just maybe, work on that finishing touch.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Lighthouse Hockey.
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