WASHINGTON — The odds indicate the Islanders will qualify for the playoffs. But Wednesday night reinforced what this whole season has showed: It ain’t gonna be easy.
The Islanders opened a three-game road trip with a tightly-played 2-1 shootout win over the Capitals at Capital One Arena, their first shootout victory in six tries this season.
Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri scored in the shootout.
The Islanders (39-28-9), with six games remaining, now have a five-point edge over the idle Penguins for the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot, though the Penguins have played two fewer games.
The Islanders conclude this trip with a tough weekend back-to-back against the three-time conference champion Lightning and the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes in what could be a first-round playoff preview.
The Islanders entered Wednesday with a 92.8% chance of qualifying for the playoffs, per Hockey-Reference.com, a stark turnaround since a 2-8-3 skid to start 2023 left them six points out of a postseason spot on Jan. 26.
Ilya Sorokin, spectacular in stopping three shots in a thrilling, back-and-forth, three-on-three overtime period, finished with 25 saves. And he stopped Nicklas Backstrom in the shootout to seal the win.
Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for the Capitals (34-32-9), who likely must win all their remaining games to have a chance at the postseason.
The Capitals won both games at UBS Arena when they were still contending for a playoff spot. That included a 5-1 victory on March 11 where the Islanders managed just 18 shots on Kuemper.
“We owe them one,” Anders Lee said. “It wasn’t our best game the last game we saw them at home.”
Wednesday marked Lane Lambert’s first return to Washington as a head coach since helping Barry Trotz lead the Capitals to the franchise’s only Stanley Cup in 2018. Lambert served as Trotz’s associate coach with the Islanders the past four seasons.
“We had some good memories, Barry and I, here,” Lambert said. “We’ve been back here so many times that this is no different. I never really even thought of that.”
Neither had the players.
“I don’t know if that’s something we’ve really thought about just being that’s it’s been so long since he’s been here,” Brock Nelson said. “He just had ‘associate,’ he wasn’t the head coach. But he still had his hands all over the team, impacting everything. It kind of feels like we’ve already broken down that first game back with him.”
Nelson’s linemate Pierre Engvall put the Islanders ahead 1-0 at 3:52 of the second period, connecting from the left circle off the rush. It was Engvall’s fourth career goal against Kuemper on four shots. That streak was snapped when Kuemper smothered Engvall’s wrister from the same spot at 8:01 of the second period.
By then, the Capitals had tied it at 1-1 as Conor Sheary got to the slot and shoveled a backhander past Sorokin’s blocker at 6:22.
The Islanders went the final 13:28 of the first period without a shot on net as they were outshot 7-3 over the opening 20 minutes. Sorokin stopped Nicolas Aube-Kubel from close range at 12:55 and Nic Dowd’s tip-in attempt at 19:29.
The Islanders’ shot drought extended to 16:56 before Zach Parise tipped the puck on net at 3:28 of the second period. Engvall scored on the Islanders’ second shot of the period.
The Islanders managed just 11 shots in the first two periods — the Capitals blocked 19 shots over the first 40 minutes and 27 in the game — but mustered six shots in the first 1:27 of the third. They wound up taking the first 10 shots of the period until T.J. Oshie tipped the puck on net at 11:43 and outshot the Capitals 15-5.
