The New York Islanders pulled themselves back to .500 with a 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues yesterday. It’s really late (my bad) but here’s the game recap.
St. Louis opened the scoring when Brayden Schenn sent a pass to the front of the net, which was intended for Vladimir Tarasenko but ended up deflecting off Anthony Beauvillier’s stick and in. It wasn’t impossible for Greiss to stop but it would’ve been a difficult reactionary save. David Perron just about made it a 2-0 game when he rang a shot off the post in the last few seconds of the period. All in all, it was a pretty even first 20 minutes.
In the second, the Blues took the play to New York a little bit but Thomas Greiss was solid, with his best save coming at the side of the net on Robby Fabbri about halfway through the period (he sold it a bit for sure but still, it looked nice). The period ended 1-0 Blues.
Tarasenko put St. Louis up 2-0 just over five minutes into the third and it didn’t look great for
New York. Later in the frame, the Islanders came up with a big penalty kill though, where Cal Clutterbuck got the best chance of the entire two minutes but was stopped by Jordan Binnington.
Brock Nelson cut the lead to one with just over five minutes to go, when he took a shot from close to the boards and the puck squeaked in. Realistically that’s one Binnington really should’ve had– and it’s one that ended up costing them.
With about 30 seconds left, Johnny Boychuk kept the play alive, intercepting a clearing attempt at the line and saved the game for the Islanders. He got the puck to Mathew Barzal who threw it on net and after deflecting off Alex Steen, the puck found its way in to tie the game.
In overtime, Barzal went to work, hanging on to the puck, cutting behind the net and feeding Devon Toews for the game-winner.
I thought this was Barzal’s best game by far. He’s making zone entries and carrying the puck way, way more than the earlier games. Seeing him play the way he can is a big positive for New York.
Oliver Wahlstrom didn’t carry the puck a ton but when he did he looked pretty comfortable with it. Ryan Pulock was pretty sound defensively and made some nice interceptions, breaking up passes that would’ve resulted in great chances for the Blues.
This was a feel-good win for the Islanders and it’s one they deserved. They outshot the Blues 32-23, including 18-6 in the third period and now they’ll head to Winnipeg as a 3-3 team rather than a 2-4 team.
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OTHER ISLANDERS ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Game Recap (Game 5): NYI vs FLA
Game Recap (Game 4): NYI @ CAR
Game Recap (Game 3): NYI vs EDM
Game Recap (Game 2): NYI vs WPG
Game Recap (Game 1): NYI vs WSH
Josh Ho-Sang has requested a trade
Fritz, Hickey and Ho-Sang clear waivers 
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