ELMONT, N.Y. — The injury-depleted Islanders went into the NHL’s three-day holiday break with a solid performance. Their first game after vacation was even better.
They thoroughly dominated the Penguins, one of the Metropolitan Division foes they are chasing for a playoff spot, in a 5-1 win on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. Still, they may have lost Oliver Wahlstrom to a head injury.
Coupled with Friday’s 5-1 win over the visiting Panthers, it gave the Islanders (20-14-2) consecutive victories for the first time since a four-game winning streak from Nov. 21-26.
Mathew Barzal scored twice in a dominant second period, Anders Lee also had two goals, Josh Bailey added a goal and two assists and Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves.
“It’s definitely good to have a few days off,” Matt Martin said. “It’s good just for everyone to spend some time with their families, their kids, kind of reset and get ready for the second half. In terms of health, it’s always huge to get two, three days off at any point in the season for guys to take care of bumps and bruises.”
The Islanders were already missing right wings Kyle Palmieri (upper body), Cal Clutterbuck (upper body) and Simon Holmstrom (left leg), defenseman Adam Pelech (suspected head injury) and goalie Semyon Varlamov (lower body).
Then Wahlstrom exited at 1:27 of the first period, wobbling to the Islanders’ dressing room after defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph appeared to knock his head into the corner boards. Joseph was retaliating after Wahlstrom leveled Chad Ruhwedel, his defense partner.
Tristan Jarry stopped 37 shots for the Penguins (19-10-5), who had been on an 8-1-1 streak.
“We find ourselves chasing a couple of teams now,” Brock Nelson said. “All of these games are going to be crucial for us now, this stretch before the All-Star break and then down the homestretch, too. We wanted to follow up our game against Florida and try to bank as many points as we can.”
The Islanders scored three times and outshot the Penguins 20-5 in the second period despite the Penguins entering the game having outscored opponents 45-30 in the middle frame.
Barzal put the Islanders ahead 2-1 just 50 seconds in, circling toward the crease and deflecting Hudson Fasching’s blast from the right circle, then showing Fasching on the bench where the puck hit his blade after the goal was initially credited to Fasching. Josh Bailey made it 3-1 at 11:32 on a play created by Noah Dobson. The defenseman lined up to shoot from the top of the right circle but hesitated enough to freeze Jarry as he instead fed Bailey for an open look low in the left circle.
Barzal increased the lead to 4-1 at 16:42, lifting a sharp angle shot that deflected in off Jarry’s left shoulder.
The Islanders took a quick 1-0 lead after the Penguins turned the puck over in their zone and Nelson fed Anders Lee for a one-timer from the right circle at 1:03 of the first period. Lee also knocked in the rebound of Nelson’s shot to make it 5-1 at 3:33 of the third period.
The Islanders appeared to score a second goal at 4:38 of the first period when Casey Cizikas continued to whack at the puck off the right post, eventually knocking it past Jarry. The goal was confirmed via video review, then overturned on an offside challenge.
The Islanders lost momentum — at least for the rest of the first period — after Anthony Beauvillier was called for interference against Brock McGinn at 9:50 of the first period. Joseph tied it at 1-1 with a shot from the left point through traffic at 15:13.
