Islanders hold on to beat Canadiens, end 4-game losing streak
Anthony Beauvillier of the Islanders celebrates his first period goal against the Canadiens at UBS Arena on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Islanders still aren’t scoring many goals, and this latest effort won’t squelch every doubt about their playoff viability. But at least they won this time.
“We know what we can do when we work as a group,” said Casey Cizikas, who responded “bad” when asked how badly this win was needed. “That’s something we have to do for a complete game and I thought we did that. Even giving up that goal late, we didn’t fold.”
The Islanders scored twice in the opening 6:03 and snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the struggling Canadiens on Saturday night at UBS Arena to improve to 1-1-1 on their five-game homestand.
The Islanders (23-18-3) had scored only five total goals in their 0-3-1 skid. The win allowed them to leapfrog the Penguins by one point for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Penguins have played two fewer games.
“I thought the start was really good,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We came out and established territory. All night long we tried to generate shots and put shots to the net.”
The Islanders outchanced the Canadiens, who blocked 27 shots, by 75-46.
But the win wouldn’t have happened if not for Ilya Sorokin. He again was stellar, making 22 saves in his 11th start in 12 games.
“It’s extremely impressive,” Anders Lee said. “The way he sees the puck. How athletic he is. The way he can track the play. He’s extremely smart. It’s a treat for us every night.”
Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault, who made 36 saves, kept his team close long enough to make it uncomfortable for the Islanders.
Nick Suzuki cut the Islanders’ lead to 2-1 at 9:56 of the third period with a backhander at the crease. But the Islanders kept their poise, even with Montembeault pulled for an extra skater.
“A lot of composure,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “A lot of calmness out there. We’ve been in those situations before. We’ve just got to stick together. We know our structure. We were hard on the puck. It was good for us to show that at the end of the game.”
Lambert said before the game that the Islanders had to put more pucks on the net to snap out of their scoring drought. The two goals bore out Lambert’s directive.
Dobson, from the right point, sent a puck toward the crease that Cizikas tipped in at 2:25. Anthony Beauvillier, who grew up in the Montreal suburb of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, made it 2-0 at 6:03 of the first period with his first goal in nine games. Again, defenseman Scott Mayfield got the puck toward the net from the blue line and Beauvillier was in position to Montembeault’s left to clean up the rebound.
He acknowledged scoring against his hometown team is always special.
“Definitely,” Beauvillier said. “My friends are going to hear about it a little bit.”
The Canadiens (17-23-3), in last place in the Atlantic Division and mired in a 2-8-1 skid, played the last two periods with 10 forwards after Jake Evans exited. Coach Martin St. Louis had opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
The game was defenseman Alexander Romanov’s first against his former teammates since the Islanders acquired him for the 13th overall pick on July 7. But the defenseman was sentimental only about winning.
“It’s special for me only because we’ve lost four in a row and we should win today,” said Romanov, 23, who spent two seasons with the Canadiens. “I play just for the Islanders, for my team and for my partners right now.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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