The New York Islanders earned their sixth straight win, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 6-1, and are now back in a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 13.
ANAHEIM, CA -- The New York Islanders earned their sixth straight win, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 6-1, and are now back in a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 13.
With 70 points in 63 games, New York leapfrogged the Detroit Red Wings, who have 70 points in 64 games.
Here's how the Islanders beat the Ducks to keep the winning streak alive:
After a strong play by Simon Holmstrom deep in the Ducks zone, he quickly threw a backhander to Casey Cizikas, sitting in the low slot.
The veteran center caught the pass before going five-hole to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 5:11 of the first for his eighth goal of the season:
A tad over two minutes later, Kyle Palmieri continued to haunt his former team, burying on the breakaway for his 20th goal of the season at 7:28 of the first to make it 2-0 after a strong saucer feed from Mike Reilly:
Palmieri now has five goals over his last four games.
On the power play, Brock Nelson finished off a give-and-go with Bo Horvat before burying a shot glove side for his 29th of the season at 14:28 of the first to extend the Islander's lead to 3-0.
Nelson, Horvat, and Mathew Barzal extended their point streaks on the play:
The Ducks got on the board just 24 seconds into the second, courtesy of Alex Killron. After Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech went for a pinch at the Ducks' blue line, he missed, leading to a fast-break chance for Max Jones.
Despite getting back, Jones dished the puck off to Killorn, who sniped Varlamov over the glove to cut the Islander's lead to 3-1.
The Islanders did not get their first shot on goal of the period until 6:22 to play and were outshot 10-6.
Just 34 seconds into the third, Barzal found Nelson in the slot before his shot toward Dostal -- a slow one -- was caught by Horvat, who then beat Dostal from the low slot for his 26th of the season to make it a 4-1 game:
Pierre Engvall got in on the fun at the 7:56 mark of the third after he buried blocker side on a breakaway for his eighth goal of the season:
That goal gave the Islanders their fifth of the game, as they have now scored four-plus goals in each of their last four games and five in three of their last five.
Cal Clutterbuck scored his fifth goal of the season at 18:12 of the third after he sniped Dostal from the low slot. Kyle MacLean earned his first career assist, a secondary helper, with Matt Martin getting the primary assist.
The Islanders got the victory and have now outscored opponents 30-11 over their six-game winning streak.
In his first start since Feb. 22, Semyon Varlamov turned aside 22 of 23 shots.
NEXT UP: The Islanders battle the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at Crypto.Com Arean at 10 PM ET
LINES:
Brock Nelson - Bo Horvat - Mathew Barzal
Anders Lee - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Kyle Palmieri
Pierre Engvall - Casey Cizikas - Simon Holmstorm
Matt Martin - Kyle MacLean - Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech - Noah Dobson
Alexander Romanov - Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly - Sebastian Aho
Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin