Mathew Barzal's OT winner gives Islanders 3-0 series lead over Capitals

The Islanders were on pucks early and made the bigger plays late. In between was another strong stretch of five-on-five hockey against the reeling Capitals.

So after a 2-1 overtime win over Washington in Game 3 on Sunday, the Islanders will be going for a first-round sweep for the second straight year.

“There’s no tougher game than a game to clinch a series, and it’s going to be no different in Game 4,” said Anders Lee, who has scored in each of the three games against the Capitals. “It’s going to be a tough game. We played a good one today.”

Mathew Barzal punctuated the performance as he swooped over the blue line, cut to the crease and deposited a backhander at 4:28 of overtime for the win at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

“I run that play a little bit in practice, or even in games,’’ Barzal said. “Just try to sneak behind the D a little bit. Timed it perfectly on the blue line, great heads-up play by Ebs [Jordan Eberle], just great touch on the pass. I had that play a few times this year and I looked five-hole or I looked short side. I decided to take this one far post, and it paid off.”

Last year, the Islanders swept the Penguins in the first round before being swept by the Hurricanes.

Only four teams in NHL history have rallied from a 3-0 series deficit. The Islanders did it against the Penguins in 1975 in the quarterfinals and the Kings, en route to the Stanley Cup in 2014, came back in the first round against the Sharks.

“I know it’s a hard situation, but it’s not over yet,” said the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin, who was held to one shot after scoring twice in the Islanders’ 5-2 win in Game 2. “We’re never going to stop believing. L.A. did it. We won the Cup [in 2018] when we were down 2-0 against Columbus [in the first round].”

A brilliant Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves for the Islanders, including two stops on Jakub Vrana’s breakaway just under 30 seconds before Barzal’s winner. Braden Holtby, easily playing his best game of the series, stopped 32 shots for the Capitals.

The only real negative for the Islanders was going 0-for-5 with six total shots on the power play. They could not convert on three chances in a first period in which they took nine of the first 11 shots and finished with a 14-6 shot advantage.

“They have a good penalty kill,” said Islanders coach Barry Trotz, whose team is 1-for-14 on the power play in the series. “We had some good looks. We didn’t bury them. A couple of times we had some great looks but we just weren’t quick enough. They were being aggressive.”

Lee opened the scoring by getting to the right post and knocking in defenseman Adam Pelech’s deft pass from the left point at 14:50 of the first period.

It was the first time the Islanders have scored first in this series. They had been outplayed in the first period of the first two games. “That was definitely a point of emphasis,” Pelech said. “We wanted to get out to a good start. Later in the game, Varly bailed us out.”

The Capitals tied the score at 1 on their first power play as Evgeny Kuznetsov connected from the right circle at 5:50 of the second period after Leo Komarov and then Jean-Gabriel Pageau failed to clear the zone.

Less than two minutes earlier, the Islanders had just missed taking a two-goal lead as Holtby stopped Pageau’s breakaway.

Varlamov stopped Tom Wilson’s shorthanded try at the crease at 11:55 of the second period after he shot wide on a breakaway attempt.

“I think we played a pretty solid game today,” Ovechkin said. “We just didn’t get a result. I’m pretty sure the next game is going to be a different game for sure. Obviously, for us right now, it’s nothing to lose, right?”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.