CHI’ INTENSITY
Isles keep playoff hopes alive with ugly win over ’Hawks in back-to-back breakthrough
For the second straight night, the Islanders’ playoff chances were on the ropes.
And for the second straight night, they did what was necessary to produce two points, even if it came in ugly fashion, beating the Blackhawks 2-1 to keep their playoff hopes alive and well on the back of just their third win this season after trailing going into the third period.
“There’s no quit in here, right? We have to play desperate. We know that,” Ryan Pulock told The Post. “We have to win games here if we want to have a chance. So the only thing we control right now is our effort and what we do night-tonight and that’s gonna be the number one priority.”
Now, all of a sudden, the Islanders are a mere point out of a playoff spot thanks to the Capitals losing to Buffalo, though they have one less game remaining than Washington. They are just two behind the Flyers, with a game in hand on Philadelphia, and sit one point behind Detroit, with the same number of games played.
It is still all to play for. And the Islanders will still have every chance to make something of this season over their final seven games.
“Today I’m not gonna say it was a great win, I’m also gonna say it was a great game,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Everybody played really well and that’s the type of hockey we need to play if we’re gonna give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs.”
It might not have been the prettiest game of the season, especially for the first 40 minutes. But when it mattered, the Islanders managed to raise their level.
Frustration going into the second intermission was such that the Islanders were booed off the ice by the home crowd, having struggled to mount enough of a push after Jason Dickinson’s first-period goal had given the Blackhawks a lead.
Failing to come through in the third period would not have mathematically ended their playoff chances, but it would have made a run at the wild card a pipe dream at best. The Islanders knew it and so did everyone else.
Their chance at some momentum came early, when Philipp Kurashev went off for holding, and the Islanders jumped on it. With newlook power-play units following a messy run at five-on-four, Bo Horvat finished off Mat Barzal’s backhand feed from behind the net to tie the game.
Then at the 9:25 mark, Simon Holmstrom put the Islanders ahead, throwing the puck on net from the low slot, watching it escape through the pads of Mrazek and getting enveloped in hugs.
“Sometimes in those kind of games, you don’t feel like you’re ever gonna score,” Horvat said. “It was big and obviously Homer stepping up after being out of the lineup here, played an unbelievable game tonight, so we needed him.”
The Blackhawks would get a chance to tie when Mike Reilly was called for holding just a few minutes after Holmstrom’s goal. But the Islanders’ penalty kill, their kryptonite for much of the season, stopped Chicago from even recording a shot on goal over the two minutes.
Unlike Monday, there was no five-on-six nightmare coming. The Islanders closed this one without drama, to the sound of cheers.
“We didn’t change our game,” Roy said. “We played the same way, we stayed with the plan and even in the second, we had a lot of chances. We could just bear down on our chances in the third, it came through. It was an important game for us and we all knew it was important to have a good third period.”
With their 10th try, the Islanders finally have a win on the second night of a back-to-back.
Not a moment too soon. “We finally did it,” Pulock said, breaking into a smile. “Big moment. Yeah we would’ve liked to win a few more throughout the year, but we needed this one and we stepped up and got it.”
Somehow, as they head to Columbus on their last flight of the regular season, the Islanders are still in the playoff race.
That should be all the encouragement they need.