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Fifth place in the Metropolitan Division doesn’t mean anything. But the Islanders played like it did.
Facing the Blue Jackets for the second time in as many games, the Islanders pulled out a 5-2 win to sweep a home-and-home series and move into a tie for fifth in the division with two games in hand on Columbus.
After going into the third period tied at two, Kyle Palmieri netted the go-ahead goal with a snipe past Elvis Merzlikins from the right circle with 16:44 to go in the game.
After six minutes and a successful penalty kill, Mathew Barzal provided the dagger, getting in alone on a breakaway and scoring to extend the lead to a decisive 4-2. Semyon Varlamov, who finished with 34 saves, helped the Islanders fend off an extended six-on-five attack before Ryan Pulock’s empty-net goal.
In a fact that will be equal parts maddening and heartening to fans, the Islanders continue to play some of their best hockey of the season after they have been all but officially eliminated from the playoff race. Their first period on Thursday was a clinic in forechecking, and a shooting gallery that put Merzlikins at the mercy of his own team’s inability to get out of its zone.
The Islanders recorded the first 10 shots of the game, scoring on Nos. 9 and 10, which came 11 seconds apart. After Sebastian Aho’s wrist shot from the right circle found its way past Merzlikins, Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom found themselves in a two-on-one off the ensuing faceoff, with Wahlstrom netting the goal at 8:50.
The momentum didn’t last long, as the Blue Jackets came back to tie things up in the second, with Emil Bemstrom and Justin Danforth scoring within two minutes midway through the period and the Islanders looking out of sorts.
In the third, though, they found their footing again.
The Islanders finished a month in which they played a franchise-record 17 games, lost two key players to injuries and defied expectations to stand pat at the trade deadline with their record at 30-27-9, and an impressive 10-6-1 over a hectic 31 days.
That was not good enough to get them back in the playoff hunt, and thus serves little purpose other than as a consolation prize. But it does serve as some vindication for the belief that the early-season tumult off the ice was more responsible for the team’s struggles than any fatal flaw in the team’s construction.
The schedule doesn’t let up over the last month. There are 16 more games, starting with Friday’s tilt against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Just as could be said about the last four weeks of games, it would be easy for the Islanders to start playing with one eye on their summer break.
But if fifth place was enough motivation for this Thursday night, then it’s easy to imagine they’ll find a reason to care about those games, too.
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