Islanders pumped up over killer penalty kill

While the Islanders recorded a 3-1 win over the Capitals on Monday night, the victory may have been even bigger because they did not allow a goal on the penalty kill.

It snapped a streak of seven straight games in which the Islanders’ opponents had at least one power-play goal. Opponents had a combined 11 power-play goals in that span.

“We hadn’t gotten many results with the penalty kill lately, so good job sticking with it,” John Tavares said. “We looked at it as another opportunity to change the narrative.”

Coach Doug Weight dedicated Friday’s practice in Boston to the penalty kill, knowing it was time “to tinker with some things and to just get a breath of fresh air from our team,” he said.

The Islanders allowed a powerplay goal to the Bruins on Saturday night, but after Monday, they believe they have turned the corner heading into Wednesday’s game against the Stars at Barclays Center.

“I think it’s a little bit of just not thinking too much,” Andrew Ladd said. “If you’re thinking too much, you’re reacting less. It’s those milliseconds that you’re late when you’re thinking that end up haunting you. Sometimes you’re going through stretches where everything seems like it’s going in and other stretches when you seem to be getting bounces and things aren’t going in.”

Ladd has paired with Tavares on the penalty kill since the captain’s original partner, Nikolay Kulemin, suffered an upper-body injury in early November and went on injured reserve. Kulemin has since undergone surgery and will be out for six months.

While they still entered Tuesday’s play ranked 30th in the league in penalty-kill percentage (73.40), Monday they twice shut down the Capitals’ power-play unit, which ranks seventh in the league.

“It’s always tough when you get on a stretch where you don’t kill penalties, but I think [Monday] when we got some guys, it felt like they were in a good position all the time,” goalie Jaroslav Halak said. “They knew what everybody was doing on the ice and everybody was in sync.”