The Islanders moved Broadway to Barclays Center on Monday night and put on their own three-act show.
In the first 20 minutes, their troubling early-season trend crept back when they allowed a short-handed goal. In the next 20, they did the scoring themselves on the man-advantage and tallied a pair of power-play goals.
And in the final 20 minutes, the Islanders stuck mostly to five-on-five and excelled there too, slamming the door shut on a 6-3 win over the expansion Golden Knights in the teams’ first-ever meeting.
“The power play is clicking right now,” said Mathew Barzal, who put the Islanders ahead for good on his second-period power-play goal. “Early in the season, I thought we could have taken over some games with the power play and that’s what we’re doing now.”
The Islanders (7-4-1) have now won five of their last six games and handed the Golden Knights (8-2-0) just their second loss of the season.
“We’ve fought hard in some games,” coach Doug Weight said. “Whether it was not a great start or we had things go against us, we’ve managed to win games.”
Despite scoring just two power-play goals on 33 chances through their first 10 games, the Islanders have now scored five power-play goals on 10 chances over their last two games.
“I think we’re just getting rewarded a little bit,” said captain John Tavares, who recorded the first power-play goal and scored on even-strength later for his ninth goal in the last five games. “Sometimes when the chances you get start going in, it creates some confidence. It changes the narrative a little bit.”
After whiffing on their first three power plays of the game, the Islanders converted on back-to-back man-advantages within a matter of minutes late in the second period to take the lead for good.
Tavares continued to be a major factor in front of the net, deflecting home another shot at 14:50 to tie the game 2-2. Nick Leddy ripped a shot from just inside the blue line, which Tavares got just enough stick on to go five-hole on goalie Oscar Dansk, who left the game with an injury immediately after the goal.
Nearly three minutes later, Anders Lee had the puck with his back to the net. He backhanded a slick pass through the crease to a crashing Barzal, who scored the go-ahead goal.
Barzal had been flying around all night and missed two golden chances earlier on a half-open net, but didn’t miss the third time around.
“I was fortunate to get another one,” Barzal said. “[Lee] is one of the best net guys in the league. I know he’s either getting a good shot off or he’s going to get something through to me on the backside.”
Cal Clutterbuck got in on the scoring in the third period, playing a puck to himself off the boards to slip past one defender and gain an open lane to go top shelf for the 4-2 lead.
Nikolay Kulemin added some flash to the offense later in the period when he got loose for a breakaway and snuck a puck between the legs of Golden Knights backup goalie Maxime Lagace for his first goal of the year to go up 5-2.
Tavares finished up the Islanders’ scoring on another breakaway.
“We have the guys in this room that when we push hard, we feel we can create chances, create scoring opportunities and put the puck in the net,” said Andrew Ladd, who scored the Islanders’ first goal. “That’s part of being a good team, not having those ups and downs and feeling like there’s any panic when you’re down a goal or two.”