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The New York Islanders opened their four-game road trip against the Ottawa Senators yesterday, coming away with a 4-2 win.
Ross Johnston came into the lineup for Josh Bailey, while Semyon Varlamov got his sixth start of the season.
The Islanders opened the scoring midway through the first period on a power play, as Oliver Wahlstrom ripped a shot past Cam Talbot. It was a solid opening frame for the Islanders, outshooting Ottawa 12-10, as they took a 1-0 lead into the fist intermission.
However, New York got into a lot of penalty trouble in the second period, spending about half the frame shorthanded. Ottawa then tied the game on a 5-on-3 advantage, with Drake Batherson putting a one-timer past Semyon Varlamov. Despite so much time shorthanded, the Islanders did respond later though, with Noah Dobson just firing a wrist shot through traffic to put the Islanders back ahead through 40 minutes.
In the third period, Jean-Gabriel Pageau extended New York’s lead on a power play, burying a puck in-close against his former team. Claude Giroux did get one back for Ottawa later in the frame off a pass from Brady Tkachuk, but the Islanders hung on, as Brock Nelson buried an empty netter to secure a 4-2 win.
It’s an important win for the Islanders, who are in the midst of a stretch of games against fairly beatable opponents.
Special teams played a role here, with the Islanders’ power play going 2-for-3. Meanwhile, even though New York got into quite a bit of penalty trouble, they were able to bail themselves out with their penalty kill (which went 5-for-6).
Semyon Varlamov did have to be really good for the Islanders, stopping 36 of 38 shots in the win. Among those were some high-end chances where a player had a chance alone in front after nobody picked them up, and Varlamov had to make a key save.
Regardless, the Islanders are continuing to get wins and are sustaining much more consistent offense than previous years.
Nikita Soshnikov was also placed on waivers today, so we'll see how that plays out. I really don't like the idea of Ross Johnston playing in the top-nine when he comes into the lineup like yesterday, but Soshnikov wasn't necessarily a hugely effective option either.
The Islanders’ next game comes on Thursday, when they face the Nashville Predators.
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