Hurts so good
Isles crush Leafs but lose Nelson to injury
If the Islanders go down without Brock Nelson, it won’t be without a fight.
Nelson, who exited Tuesday’s 7-2 win over Toronto late in the first period and did not return, was the story of an otherwise brilliant victory over the Maple Leafs, which on any other night would have made the Isles feel great about their position in the playoff race.
Instead, the Islanders’ leading scorer took a hard hit from Noel Acciari in the corner during the first period and, after taking a minute to gather himself, went up the tunnel and was not seen again for the remainder of the night. Coach Lane Lambert did not have an update on Nelson’s status when asked after the game.
The Isles have survived and thrived over the past month without Mathew Barzal, but adding Nelson — their leading scorer — to the injured list would be nothing short of disaster with the Isles in a tight playoff race. Or at least it could be, if the Islanders didn’t possess an uncanny ability to rise to such occasions.
“I think the more encouraging thing is we played pretty well, 200 feet against a pretty good offensive team,” said Cal Clutterbuck, who notched the first three-point game of his career with two goals and an assist. “If anything, it just goes to show that if we can stick to the plan and be very disciplined, we can have success.”
Instead of succumbing after Nelson’s injury, the Islanders put up seven goals on the Leafs, turning UBS Arena into a raucous festival which had no shortage of hate for the visiting John Tavares. Just like when Barzal got hurt a month ago, the Islanders turned things around right when you expected them to wilt.
A game in which Toronto controlled the pace early on began to flip 28 seconds into the second period, when Scott Mayfield found Zach Parise at the backdoor for a four-on-four goal, which tied the game at one. But it wasn’t until Hudson Fasching’s wrister off a Leafs defensive-zone turnover at 13:50 of the period to make it 2-1 that the Islanders truly started to impose themselves.
For much of the night, this was the Ilya Sorokin show, and netminder again made the stunning a matter of routine with 23 stops. You can add a jaw-dropping firstperiod paddle save on Erik Gustafsson to the highlight reel, as well as a handful of in-tight looks as the Leafs’ speed overwhelmed the Islanders in the early goings of this game.
Sam Lafferty managed to get the Leafs on the board after a point shot from Timothy Liljegren bounced off Mayfield, then Lafferty at 11:01 of the first period. It was a flukey goal, but one that reflected the run of play to that point.
When this game flipped, though, it did so decisively.
Less than four minutes after Fasching’s goal, Clutterbuck deflected Ryan Pulock’s shot past Ilya Samsonov to make it 3-1.
Mitch Marner threw a scare into the Islanders just 3:29 into the final frame, one-timing a feed from Auston Matthews to cut the lead to one. But less than a minute later came Clutterbuck again with a wrist shot on the rush to make it 4-2.
From there, the Islanders scored three times in the final 10 minutes to turn the game into a blowout.
“Obviously losing Brock, he’s a big part of our team, but I thought up front, those guys, everyone logged a little more minutes, everyone stepped up and got contributions up and down the lineup,” Noah Dobson said. “It was nice to see guys like Fasch, Clutter, Zach get rewarded.”
Say what you want about the Islanders — if they do indeed make the playoffs, it will almost certainly be with an underwhelming point total, and they will go into the first round as a heavy underdog.
But out of it? Never.