ELMONT, N.Y. — The Islanders still aren’t scoring many goals and this latest effort won’t squelch doubts about the team’s playoff viability. But at least they won this time.
They snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the struggling Canadiens on Saturday night at UBS Arena to improve to 1-1-1 on their five-game homestand.
The Islanders (23-18-3) had scored just five total goals in their 0-3-1 skid. The win allowed them to leapfrog the Penguins by one point for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, though the Penguins have played two fewer games.
Luckily for the Islanders, Ilya Sorokin was again stellar in making 22 saves.
The Canadiens (17-23-3), in last place in the Atlantic Division and mired in a 2-8-1 skid, played the last two periods with 10 forwards after Jake Evans exited. Coach Martin St. Louis had opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault made 36 saves.
He kept his team close long enough to make it uncomfortable for the Islanders. Jonathan Drouin pushed the puck to Nick Suzuki, who cut the Islanders’ lead to 2-1 at 9:56 of the third period with a backhander at the crease.
Islanders coach Lane Lambert said before the game the Islanders had to put more pucks on the net to snap out of their scoring drought, citing Scott Mayfield’s goal in Thursday night’s 3-1 loss to the Wild as a prime example of what was needed. The defenseman had just flung the puck at the crease through traffic from the right point.
The Islanders’ first goal against the Canadiens was in the same vein. Defenseman Noah Dobson, from the right point, sent a puck toward the crease that Casey Cizikas tipped in at 2:25. Anthony Beauvillier, who grew up in the Montreal suburb of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, made it 2-0 at 6:03 of the first period with his first goal in nine games. Again, Mayfield got the puck toward the net from the blue line and Beauvillier was in position to Montembeault’s left to clean up the rebound.
Sorokin, making his third straight start and 11th in the last 12 games, preserved that two-goal lead late in the first period. First, he scrambled and sprawled to stop Evgenii Dadonov and defenseman David Savard in quick succession at close range at 17:39. Then, with 57.7 seconds to go, he gloved Kirby Dach’s try from the low slot.
Sorokin started the second period with a good glove save on Drouin off the rush at 3:15.
Also similar to Thursday’s game against the Wild, the Islanders lost some momentum in the second period by taking penalties. Cizikas was called for slashing defenseman Jordan Harris at 5:21 and Hudson Fasching tripped Nick Suzuki at 9:34. But the Islanders’ penalty kill — 10 for 10 over the last four games — held the Canadiens to a combined two shots over those four minutes.
The game marked Alexander Romanov’s first against his former teammates since the Islanders acquired him for the 13th overall pick on July 7. But the defenseman was only sentimental about winning.
“It’s special for me only because we’ve lost four in a row and we should win today,” Romanov said. “That’s why it’s special for me. I play just for the Islanders, for my team and for my partners right now. I don’t think it’s something special for me. We just want to win every single game, every single moment and try to play our best.”
Romanov, who turned 23 on Jan. 6, spent his first two NHL seasons with the Canadiens after two seasons playing for his hometown CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
