Won for the road
Isles top Devs at home before nine-game trip
This was one last bit of home cooking, one last taste of where it’s comfortable and where it works. And now it’s out into what is basically a do-or-die trip through all of North America, where the Islanders have been lost. But they did manage to secure a final good feeling at Barclays Center with a 6-4 win over the Devils on Sunday night. It extended their home points streak to 11 games (9-0-2), the longest such streak since 1982, as they now head off for a franchise-record nine-game road trip, starting Tuesday in Detroit. Although the Islanders (2721-10) have thrived under interim head coach Doug Weight, now 104-2 since he took over for the fired Jack Capuano on Jan. 17, their season record on the road is 7-14-3. All four losses under Weight have been away from home, and that includes 3-2 to the Devils (25-24-10) on the first leg of this back-to-back, home-andhome Saturday night in Newark. “We have to change things. We don’t have a good feeling, not a good vibe on the road right now,” Weight said. “For whatever reason, I think the biggest one in my mind — because I think we’re built to be a good road team — is we’ve been [home] a lot, and we’ve been great here, and it’s been a crutch. It seems like three out of four nights, we’re here. “Hopefully we can get on the road, get together as a team, start to be that good road team that we have to be, and I believe we can be.” There was a chance Weight and his squad could have left for this trip finally in postseason position, but the Maple Leafs won in Carolina on Sunday, putting them one point ahead for the second wild-card spot. Yet that proximity to the playoffs is something that has engaged this Islanders group, and in Weight’s unfailing honesty, he admitted the turnaround has come earlier than expected.
“The big spiel my first day in the room, after the first 30 minutes, was: ‘By the end of February, we want to have control of our own fate,’ ” Weight said. “So we’re ahead of schedule.”
That momentum has come by way of efforts like Sunday’s, when the Islanders played with an edge that might have been missing the previous night. It’s the type of edge they could really use on the road.
“It wasn’t a Rembrandt,” Weight said. “It was physical, it was hard hockey. There will be ice bags after that weekend, and I’m sure they’ll feel the same way.”
The Isles hardly let an early 1-0 deficit from a Miles Wood power-play goal bother them. They responded with two Ryan Strome goals sandwiching one from Casey Cizikas — all with a little help from New Jersey backup goalie Keith Kinkaid, sleepwalking through this one while stopping 26-of-32 shots.
By the time Andrew Ladd scored his 16th of the season and fourth in the past three games, they were up 4-1 with just over eight minutes to play in the second.
“For us, it’s not like there’s a lack of confidence in here,” Ladd said. “We know we can play our type of hockey on the road, as well.”
The Devils did push, and beat Isles backup netminder JeanFrancois Berube twice before the second period ended, tallies from Kyle Palmieri and Joseph Blandisi making it 4-3 going into the third. But a power-play goal from John Tavares, and the 15th goal of the season from Jason Chimera made it 6-3, and allowed for Taylor Hall’s short-side power-play tally 8:37 into the third matter only for statistical purposes.
The Islanders know what lies ahead, and what the result could be if they don’t learn how to win away from Atlantic Avenue.
“If we really want to make the playoffs,” Chimera said, “we have to find a way to get it done.” bcyrgalis@nypost.com