Islanders 4 (EN), Panthers 2: Stunning 3rd-period comeback

The Isles didn’t let up and were rewarded with a boisterous win over the Cup champs in Mike Reilly’s return.

What a stunning and unexpectedly electric Sunday night at UBS Arena.

Facing a 2-0 deficit entering the third period against the reigning Stanley Cup champs, the New York Islanders overcame what seemed like a “nice try, but not in the cards” night to pull off a comeback 4-2 win.

The Isles had a really good first period but could not get on the scoreboard; when the Panthers got goals from stalwarts Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov within the first five minutes of the second, it definitely felt like one of those nights. That Barkov’s came on the first power play of the night against the Isles’ again-struggling PK just added to that foreboding.

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But the Isles didn’t let up in the third, steadily chipping away to get on the board six minutes in, tie it 12 minutes in, then add a shocking go-ahead goal 17 seconds later on a rare highlight reel run by Noah Dobson.

Simon Holmstrom capped the game with an empty netter from his own zone with seven seconds to go.

As a bonus, the game also saw the healthy return of Mike Reilly, out since Nov. 1, now recovered after a heart procedure. He was in the starting lineup and the crowd gave him a loud, heartwarming (no pun intended) welcome back, and he even had an assist, sending Max Tsyplakov off to the races with a great breakaway-springing bank pass. Reilly replaced Adam Pelech, who’s considered day to day.

Here’s Marc Gatcomb getting the Isles on the board at 6:29, finally, with some tenacious work:

Here’s the nifty move by Tsyplakov (who was lined up with Gatcomb and Kyle MacLean), after a heads-up pass by Reilly from deep in his own zone:

And just 17 seconds after Tsyplakov tied it, here’s Dobson going the distance, showing a flash and assertiveness that we just do not seen enough from the pending RFA. Great anticipation to break up the pass in the neutral zone and push the accelerator:

And this was not a case where Ilya Sorokin had to carry them all night — total shots on goal were 34-24 for the Isles — but he was good late as they held on to the one-goal lead. Simon Holmstrom got the empty netter as he supported J-G Pageau on one more defensive zone faceoff.

For a Sunday night with a team that has felt out of it, this all made for a pretty boisterous atmosphere.

The result of course keeps the Isles in barking distance of the wild card positions — the current wild card holding Rangers lost in regulation to the Oilers, a couple days after the Isles at least harvested an OTL point off them. So those Smurfs are four points ahead but with two more games played. But the persistent challenge remains that there are three other teams all in that mix above the Isles in points as the night came to an end.

Still, performances like this will keep things interesting for a while, at least on paper. (I know I shouldn’t rule out something even more than “interesting” because anything can happen, etc., but this team has not built a lot of hope this season, despite their internal belief.) Their good start and their persistence after things weren’t going their way was what you want to see.

Up Next

The Isles head to Pittsburgh to meet the Penguins on Tuesday night. The Penguins are just two points behind, though with three more games played. They’ve been picking up some wins lately — four in a row now — to make them look closer than they really are, as well as a dangerous foe right now.