Islanders topple Avalanche to pick up best win of season, spoil Brock Nelsons return
Brock Nelson got his standing ovation.The Islanders got their two points.Maybe that wasn’t how Nelson envisioned his return to UBS Arena going, and who could blame him given that the Avalanche had lost just once in regulation all year and once in their last 13 games.But a night that began focused on Nelson’s first game back on Long Island became about the Islanders earning their best win of the season so far, beating juggernaut Colorado 6-3 to finish out a rocky seven-game homestand strong.It was just over a couple of weeks ago when the Islanders thought they played their best game of a seven-game road trip in Denver, only for it to be the only game they lost on that swing.
They will feel more than validated by what they saw Thursday, when a lineup without Jonathan Drouin — scratched after taking warmups due to a lower-body injury and called day to day — not only hung around with the current Stanley Cup favorites, but never trailed.Matthew Schaefer and Ryan Pulock, asked to take on the matchup against Nate MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen, hung tight, with the rookie continuing to prove he is up for any challenge.Ilya Sorokin was terrific in making 35 saves, standing up to numerous barrages around the crease to continue a brilliant run of form.Mathew Barzal, who has disappeared across portions of the last couple of weeks including Tuesday’s win against Tampa Bay, had his best game of the season, bar none.
He was incisive, engaged and creative as ever.He pulled up and delivered a cross-ice feed for Anders Lee’s one-timer that made it 2-0 at the 18:20 mark of the first, then with the Islanders needing to claw back some momentum late in the second, he skated past two defenders and finished on his backhand to make it a 5-2 game.That did not, as the Islanders hoped, portend an easy finish.Artturi Lehkonen’s one-timer from Cale Makar cut the Islanders’ lead to 5-3 just 83 seconds into the third, moving the pieces into place for a madcap endin...