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The New York Islanders picked up their fourth straight win tonight, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1.
A lineup change came with Ross Johnston swapping in for Matt Martin, who was absent due to the birth of his child.
The Islanders ended up shorthanded right off the bat, as Casey Cizikas was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct after colliding with Alex Stalock. New York did a great job killing off the penalty though, giving up few chances. As the period went on, the Islanders had some power play chances of their own though and while they couldn’t capitalize on the first two, Andes Lee managed to poke in a loose puck on a third man advantage late in the frame, leaving New York with a lead after 20 minutes.
We saw a pretty slow second period after that, with few opportunities exchanged. There were very few rush chances and neither team could capitalize, as the Islanders remained up after the second frame.
New York came out strong in the third period, outshooting Chicago badly through the first half of the frame. Then interestingly enough, it was when the Islanders were trapped in their end for the first time in the period that a rush went back the other way and Brock Nelson ripped a shot over the shoulder of Arvid Soderblom, doubling the lead. Only a few minutes later though, the Blackhawks ended up with another power play and Jonathan Toews tipped in a point shot to get Chicago on the board. However, despite a late push from the Blackhawks with some chances to tie it, Zach Parise managed to ice the game with 13 seconds left, sending the puck down ice and into the open net.
While the game certainly didn't carry the same excitement as the comeback against Colorado, this was a solid outing for the Islanders. They outshot Chicago by a 33-22 margin and did a great job eliminating chances for the Blackhawks at even strength.
Despite giving up a goal, the Islanders’ penalty kill also looked great. They killed off four of five penalties and through most of the kills, did a great job suppressing shots and those that did come were often low-danger.
Brock Nelson and Anders Lee also continued their great starts to the season, each picking up a goal in the win. While each needs to be a key part of the offense for the Islanders to have success this year (and we know both can be streaky), they’ve both surpassed expectations to this point.
As for another top forward, while Mathew Barzal has been great so far this season, he’s still passing up on some great opportunities to shoot. This has always been an issue but just tonight alone, there were a few times where he had a clear lane and opted for a pass instead that didn’t work out. He still has yet to score this season.
While Ilya Sorokin didn’t face a huge workload, he also continued his great start to the season, stopping 21 shots in the win. Through seven games this season, he holds a .935 save percentage.
It’s another key win for the Islanders, to get up to a 6-4-0 record. They’ll face the struggling St. Louis Blues next, in another road matchup on Thursday.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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