The SNL Line drew first blood at the 5:11 mark of the first period as Anders Lee scored on Holtby from right outside his crease from a pass by Ryan Strome. It was “Tonelli worthy.”
The Isles seemed to be out skating the Capitals during the first period. Matt Martin, who was keeping step to avert an icing, was angry about a quick whistle and the Isles were assessed with an icing call. He took a holding penalty only a few seconds after that. The Isles PK fell to an Alexander Ovechkin power play goal from the circle. No one covered him. Maybe they should have been more aware of the Great 8.
With less than five minutes left of the first, the Isles were on a power play and had a wide open Caps net but couldn’t get the puck to cooperate. Boychuk missed a pass and the Caps kept clearing the zone. Another wasted Isles power play?
With seven seconds left, Travis Hamonic scored right after a face off win. While the fans were chanting “Yes! Yes! Yes!” the Isles dangerously turned over the puck. There were gasps.
Anders Lee told MSG‘s Shannon Hogan he knew they had to take advance of opportunities. The “kid line” as they have been called, has great chemistry and communication “We feed off each other very well We just go out there and play. Play a simple game, and it’s worked for us.”
As the second period was ending, Tom Wilson was hanging on to Anders Lee and Lee just had enough of it. Lee threw off his gloves and grabbed Wilson’s jersey and pulled him down. They both threw punches, but Lee (first NHL fight) was the aggressor and with Lee and Okposo in the box (for the Isles extra penalty), they left Ovechkin wide open in the right circle and he pulled the same trick and scored on Halak. Score was tied at two with Ovechkin scoring both power play goals.
Travis Hamonic was calm discussing the power play goals they gave up. “You’re not going to take one penalty every game; you’re going to take a couple. Obviously you want to limit it. We have to stay out of the box and keep pressuring. We have to go back to what we’ve done. We have another gear we can get to , we’ve proven that in the past .” And continue to prove it.
Hamonic called Ovechkin “A horse” with a lot of muscle. “You have to be aware of him on the power play. I don’t think he’s generated a lot five-on-five.” A dig, at the guy who scored two power play goals with the same move.
The third period started with Lee and Wilson finishing out their fighting penalties. There was twenty minutes to see if the Isles could win this one. Statistics said they are favorites to win when tied going into the third. But they had to play to win not just get to overtime.
They lead in hits 37 - 21 early in the third, (and finished with 55) so they weren’t playing passive hockey. But they needed to have patience. Kyle Okposo can’t buy a goal. Even his really good shots were gloved.
The Isles had a power play at the 5:53 mark and the crowd tried to will them to score. Visnvosky’s blast was stopped and the Isles had a hard time keeping it in the Caps zone. They managed one shot on net during the power play. Opportunity squandered.
Halak made an excellent save on Carlson and as the clock wound down, the Isles put intense pressure on the caps and Okposo had another excellent chance to put the Isles on top. He didn’t. Neither did Josh Bailey. The game went to overtime.
Hamonic and Boychuk had opportunities but it wasn’t until Backstrom took a penalty with 2:22 remaining in the OT for holding Brock Nelson’s stick and trying to make it look like a trip that things looked promising. A four on three power play would seem to be easy, but it wasn’t. Boychuk missed the net twice and while the Isles seemed to take their damn sweet time setting up during the power play until Strome sent the puck cross ice to Tavares, who faked a few times before shooting at Holtby who was screened by Boychuk.
An overtime power play goal for John Tavares. He fell to his knees as the entire team skated on ice to surround him.
It was his 9th goal of the season and the game winner. The Isles winning streak continues. They’ve won ten of their last eleven games. I guess Capuano will be wearing that tie again on Friday.
Now, Capuano and Tavares both complimented the Islanders home crowd for what they give the Isles, but Friday they will be in Washington and while there may be some Isles fans in attendnace, it won't be the same. When Jack Capuano was asked about the sell-out crowd, "It was awesome. That was the first thing I was going to talk about was the crowd and the energy we’re feeding off them. Maybe it didn’t happen a year or two ago. I hope it continues."
Can the Isles play their best there and continue to make NHL history?
"Cream will always rise to the top. Whether that line (1st) didn’t have the best night at the end of the day 91 gets a big goal for us. It’s team first mentality."
And this team is the real deal.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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