Nassau Coliseum was always a fortress for the Islanders in the Stanley Cup playoffs, from the beginning of the building’s life to its very end.
Whether UBS Arena will hold to the same standard is a question that can’t be answered after one game.
But Friday night was a good start.
The Islanders christened their two-year old arena in its playoff opener with a 5-1 victory over the Hurricanes thanks to two late third-period goals, pulling their first-round series back to a 2-1 deficit with a chance to make it even on Sunday afternoon.
“I didn’t think that anything would be like the Coliseum was,” Matt Martin said after scoring the Islanders’ third goal, which opened the floodgates late in the third period, “but it was damn close.”
As is their habit, the Islanders took control late.
The first goal of the game wasn’t scored until deep into the second period, and it wasn’t until the 16:10 mark in the third that Kyle Palmieri notched the game-winner, deflecting Sebastian Aho’s point shot past Antti Raanta just as the Islanders’ fifth power play of the night expired.
That gave the Islanders the power-play goal they desperately needed and the momentum to hang on to win a game they looked ready to blow at the end of the second period, as Martin, Scott Mayfield and Anders Lee all scored within 2:18 of Martin to blow the game open.
“It’s huge, actually,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Really good tip by Palmieri. It was clearly well-needed and at a critical time.”
It seemed as if the Islanders had wasted their best chance when Noah Dobson failed to convert from the slot on a delayed penalty, cradling his head in his hands with 5:50 to go in the game and the score tied 1-1.
The ensuing power play, the Islanders’ fifth of the night, turned out to be their golden ticket.
As the goals piled up towards the end of regulation, the new house sounded like the old house and the animosity between the Isles and ’Canes spilled over with Anders Lee and Jalen Chatfield both receiving 10-minute misconducts and the game ending with an extended shoving match between the two sides.
“UBS [is] starting to feel like home,” Palmieri said. “It’s moments like tonight and the game against Montreal and clinching [a playoff berth], those kind of things, they’re memories that our fans have, we have. Some of them don’t compare to some of the memories at the Coliseum but for us the last two years, it’s become home.”
It was a low-event, high-intensity and menacingly physical playoff hockey game.
Bodies hitting the ice.
Limbs and sticks flying all over the place.
That kind of style suits the Islanders well.
At five-on-five, the Islanders have had the better of this series through three games, and their penalty kill has started to run on all cylinders following a poor Game 1, with a 3-for-3 performance on Friday.
“That’s our style,” Ryan Pulock said. “We try to play hard. It’s a long series. You try to wear teams down.”
Casey Cizikas broke a deadlock 12:49 into the second period, jumping on Pulock’s backhand feed and chipping the puck past Raanta.
The first playoff goal at UBS Arena started a party in the stands, and the Islanders seemed to quickly turn that into momentum on the ice.
Then things started going wrong.
It looked as if Hudson Fasching had scored a few minutes later, at the right post, to make it 2-0, but Carolina’s Seth Jarvis kept the puck off the line with a desperation sweep of his hand.
Then, on an Islanders power play following Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s holding penalty, disaster struck.
Jordan Staal stripped Mathew Barzal of the puck as he tried to reenter the offensive zone.
That started a two-on-one break the other way and found Jesper Fast for the tying goal.
Immediately, the noise quieted inside the building.
The Islanders’ power play has been the death of them all season and on a night when they gave up a shorthanded goal, it looked as if it might literally be the death of their season.
Soon, though, the power play gave them life.
And now, the Islanders’ season is full of it.
