This isn’t your normal Islanders team of the past 30 years.
Barry Trotz’s men continue to defy the odds and reach new heights, a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday giving the Islanders a commanding 3-0 first-round series lead.
Shift by shift, period by period. The Islanders have continued to shut down the Penguins, allowing just a single goal for a second-straight game this series.
It’s the message that has been conveyed by Trotz and bought in by his players, including Brock Nelson — one of the four goal scorers on the afternoon.
“We’re just sticking to the process… sticking to our guns,” Nelson said. “It’s playing tight defense, good goaltending, and getting a lot of offense from a couple different guys.”
Jordan Eberle stayed red-hot in the playoffs, recording his third goal in as many games this postseason, becoming the third Islanders player in the past 25 years to do so. His tally was accompanied in quick succession by Nelson in the first period before a pair of third-period additions from Leo Komarov and Anders Lee (an empty-netter).
For a franchise that has made the mediocre commonplace, the new-look Islanders managed to take this rare lead in resilient fashion, putting together their finest road effort in decades.
Expecting a major pushback from the desperate Penguins, the Islanders conceded the afternoon’s first goal for the second-straight game, a Garrett Wilson deflection beating Robin Lehner with 7:06 left in the first period.
It would be Lehner’s lone blemish on the day as he stopped 25 of 26 shots his way, continuously providing a sturdy final line of defense for the Islanders’ resolute unit.
“I feel calm in the net right now. I see the puck [well],” Lehner said before giving kudos to the defense in front of him. “It’s a very good offensive team, that’s not easy.”
The Penguins lead lasted just 28 seconds as Eberle finished a tough-angled shot to the left of Matt Murray’s goal, snapping a wrister over the netminder’s shoulder and into the roof of the net.
Just 1:02 later, Brock Nelson picked up his second goal of the playoffs when he unleashed his patented wicked wrister on a 2-on-1 break past Murray to give the Islanders the lead.
“It was really big… we really stuck with our game,” the captain, Lee, said. “Credit to [Eberle] for that shot and to have Brock follow up pretty quickly after that, it changed the momentum.”
With the lead in hand, the Islanders went back to work in frustrating the offensively gifted, yet individualistic Penguins offense.
Sidney Crosby was held without a point yet again as he has yet to hit the scoresheet this series. His three shots on Sunday equaled the amount he had through the first two games of the season.
“It’s tough,” Nelson said of keeping tabs on the Penguins captain. “Lots of respect for him. Just have to play tight defensively, be smart, manage the puck, try not to give him any transition.”
Following a scoreless second period, the Penguins came out with their biggest push yet as desperation temporarily replaced frustration.
While the Islanders bent, allowing some big chances, they didn’t break as Komarov gave the Islanders the all-important two-goal lead with 9:23 left in the game with a wrister that beat Murray at his near post.
“They had some chances and we sort of weathered the storm,” Trotz said. “We stayed with it right to the end and we got rewarded.”
Lee would add an empty netter with 1:28 left to ice things and give the Islanders their first 3-0 playoff series lead since sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in the 1983 Stanley Cup Final.
“We didn’t change who we were or what we wanted to do,” Lee said. “We did our best to play simple hockey and to grind it out a little bit.”
The Islanders have an opportunity to sweep the Penguins on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, an unthinkable notion for many hockey pundits at the start of the series.
But the Islanders will be expecting even more from the Penguins.
“The fourth win is the toughest. There’s a lot of pride, fantastic players on the other side,” Trotz said. “We’re going to do what we do. We know how to play one way… We’re going to play with the desperation, detail, and structure that we need.”
