Whichever way the Capitals want to play, the Islanders are proving better at it in their first-round series.
Their second straight win wasn't the emotional, physical battle of the opener. This time, the Islanders won a second-period run-and-gun segment, held the edge in the special teams battle and then just ground down the Capitals in the third period.
So, the Islanders are halfway to advancing after Friday night's 5-2 win in Game 2 despite two goals from the Capitals' Alex Ovechkin. But the Islanders went 1 for 5 on the power play while the Capitals, who were 2 for 7 in Game 1, were 0 for 2 in Game 2.
Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves and Braden Holtby stopped 27 shots for the Capitals.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday at noon.
The Islanders protected a one-goal lead in the third period, killing off both the Capitals' power-play chances and limiting them to one combined shot on the man advantage. Ovechkin, though, nearly completed his hat trick at 10:14 but his open look as he cut to the crease from the left went off the outside of the net.
Instead, Cal Clutterbuck deflected in a shot from the left circle by Jean-Gabriel Pageau to give the Islanders a 4-2 lead at 17:14 of the third period. Captain Anders Lee clinched it with an empty-net goal at 18:21.
Game 2 was considerably less chippy than the Islanders' 4-2 win in Wednesday's Game 1, though Capitals right wing Tom Wilson had 10 hits, including eight in the first period.
The series opener was marked by Lee's first-period hit on Nicklas Backstrom which left the Capitals' top-line center concussed and out of Game 2, and first-period fight with Wilson. Lars Eller, who missed Game 1 as he completed his quarantine after leaving the Toronto bubble to attend the birth of his son, went back into the Capitals' lineup.
The teams totaled four goals in a span of three minutes, 58 seconds in the second period, which ended with the Islanders ahead 3-2.
Nick Leddy tied the game at 1-1 at 2:56 of the second period with a power-play shot from the left point that eluded Holtby's glove. Josh Bailey's assist gave him a career-high seven postseason points and Anthony Beauvillier's secondary assist gave him a six-game point streak to start the postseason, becoming the first Islander to do so since Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy in 1981.
Matt Martin then gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 5:01, skating to the crease and tipping-in defenseman Scott Mayfield's precision pass from the right wall that just eluded Holtby's stick. But Ovechkin tipped defenseman Brenden Dillon's shot to tie the game at 2-2 at 6:39.
Then Brock Nelson regained the lead for the Islanders just 15 seconds later on a breakaway after the Capitals coughed up the puck at the Islanders' blue line.
The Islanders looked sluggish to start Game 1, spotting the Capitals a 2-0 lead midway through the second period before rallying. The same held true in Game 2.
Ovechkin, with his first point of the postseason, took the puck from a turned-around Casey Cizikas and beat Varlamov with a backhander at the crease for a 1-0 Capitals' lead just 56 seconds into the first period. The Islanders had just one shot through the opening 9:08 and went 0 for 2 on the power play in the first period.
But they started playing the defensively sound, forecheck-heavy game they rely upon over the final eight minutes and Holtby was forced to come up with several big saves, stopping defenseman Ryan Pulock's right-point blast and Pageau's rebound try at 14:43. The Capitals managed just one shot over the final 9:03, Eller's flip-in on Varlamov from center ice.
