Goalie Thomas Greiss comes up big in Islanders’ win
New York Islanders goaltender Thomas Greiss, of Germany, makes a save during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres, Thursday Dec. 31, 2015 in Buffalo, N.Y. The Islanders won 2-1. (AP Photo/Gary Wiepert) Credit: AP/ Gary Wiepert
BUFFALO — The Islanders had their penalty-kill streak end at 42 Thursday night, but they started a much more important streak with their second straight win. Thomas Greiss made 42 saves as the Isles pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Sabres to end 2015 on a good note.
“Thank God for him,” Jack Capuano said of Greiss, who kept the game scoreless with 17 first-period saves as the Sabres — given three power plays, including 54 seconds of five-on- three — made like kids at a carnival shooting gallery in a lopsided first. With five minutes left in the period, the Sabres had outshot the Islanders 16-1.
“They had 11 power-play shots, so give them credit,” Capuano said. “Our PK wasn’t very good but our goaltender was.”
Getting to the first intermission scoreless was an accomplishment and the Islanders strengthened their game with some extended five-on-five time, able to get John Tavares out for a regular shift. And Tavares figured in the opening goal.
As Greiss helped the Islanders keep that penalty-kill streak alive, the team’s power play was stumbling, on a 1-for-24 slide coming in. Perhaps they learned a lesson from the Sabres’ power play and went for the net. Tavares snapped a shot that Sabres rookie goaltender Linus Ullmark stopped but couldn’t cover. Anders Lee helped shovel it loose and Frans Nielsen pounced on the loose puck for a 1-0 lead at 9:35 of the second.
Sabres coach Dan Bylsma challenged the goal, saying Lee interfered with Ullmark to jar the puck loose, but the officials confirmed the goal after a review.
“He just shot the puck,” Capuano said of Tavares. “He had it, he wasn’t looking to make the sexy play and we got one in.”
Nikolay Kulemin’s third goal in as many games, off a strong second effort from Kyle Okposo to Ullmark’s right, was the crucial score 1:07 into the third.
The Sabres pressed and ended the Isles’ PK streak with Ryan O’Reilly’s goal with 8:42 to play — he had some room to receive Jack Eichel’s pass when Johnny Boychuk’s stick broke — and then the home side pressed some more, especially when Boychuk left the ice after a hard, shoulder-first collision with the end boards with 4:33 to go.
With the net empty, the Sabres were buzzing. But even after 43 shots on Greiss, three Sabres passed up attempts at the top of a crowded Islanders zone in the final 25 seconds and the Isles were able to clear and seal it.
“It’s a lot of bodies out there and you basically have six goalies on our side,” Greiss said. “That helps out a lot.”
The Islanders head into 2016 in second place in the Metropolitan Division, having finished off a strong December at 8-4-1. They are far from comfortable in their standing, just five points clear of ninth in the Eastern Conference, but they again demonstrated Thursday night that they have the elements to win games when they start slow or don’t finish strong.
“We put ourselves in that position early with the penalties,” Nielsen said, “but Greisser was great and we were able to respond well.”
