The Islanders entered play Sunday with three goals by their defensemen through the season’s first 13 games.
With some help from stray Avalanche sticks, skates and legs, Islanders blueliners struck gold in Game 14 and racked up four goals in a 6-4 win at Barclays Center.
“It’s huge,” said Scott Mayfield, who scored the first goal of the night. “It helps our forwards out, takes a little pressure off them. I think it’s something we can take pride in and do a little bit more of. Tonight’s a good example, it helped us out a ton.”
Nick Leddy chipped in two more goals from the blue line while Johnny Boychuk netted his first goal since January.
All four of the defensemen goals were redirected into the net by the Avalanche in some fashion.
“I think they were more lucky than anything,” Leddy said. “I had some good bounces tonight, but I’ll take them.”
Mayfield, meanwhile, added an assist and dropped the gloves with Nikita Zadorov in the third period.
“It’s nice to get a few points and the fight was just the cherry on top at the end,” Mayfield said.
The Avalanche entered the game dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, but quickly became shorthanded. Midway through the first period, third-line winger Blake Comeau took a slap shot to the ear from Leddy and eventually was helped to the dressing room. Seconds later, second-line center Matt Duchene skated off the ice behind him as reports of a trade involving him hit social media.
Comeau never returned and neither did Duchene, who was dealt to the Senators in a three-team trade.
“It was strange,” coach Doug Weight said. “We were matching a couple things and [assistant coach Luke Richardson] came down to me and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t seen [Duchene]. He’s been sitting on the end of the bench for the last six minutes.’ And then Comeau went down, they both left the ice and I didn’t know what was going on.”
Thomas Greiss started in goal for the first time since Oct. 26 and delivered a strong performance with 31 saves. His final line was blemished by the Avalanche scoring twice in the final 30 seconds, but his effort wasn’t overlooked by Weight.
“He came up big,” Weight said. “It’s disappointing that our last five or six minutes we don’t have his back.”
The Islanders wore special lavender sweaters during the pregame warm-ups in honor of the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer night.