Islanders 3, Flames 2: Got the points after Holmstrom pair

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Magical duo. | Getty Images

For the third Islanders game in a row, a team got out to a 3-0 lead and had trouble holding it. This time, however, the Islanders — after lamenting their slow starts — got that early lead only to make things tough on themselves in the third.

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Still, they hung on for the two points after the Flames tested them with two goals in the first half of the third period. They received some big saves from Dave Rittich and held on for a 3-2 win that they just had to have, with Columbus nipping at their heels for Metro playoff spots and the Atlantic offering two wild card holders who have more points.

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Things got off to a slow start with only 5 total shots through the first 10 minutes, when Casey Cizikas opened scoring by driving the net and stuffing it until the puck got over the line.

Simon Holmstrom then added a pair of his own to finish out the 3-0 lead before the buzzer for the first intermission. That included another bit of shorthanded magic with his running mate and confidence guru J-G Pageau.

Holmstrom’s prior goal came on a feed from Brayden Schenn, which moves the newcomer out of that 58-way tie for 444th all-time among Islanders points scorers. He escapes Danton Cole and Jason Strudwick territory to join luminaries like Carson Souch and Andy Andreoff with two points in his Islanders tenure.

That combo was actually part of the big news, and latest line tinkering, heading into the game. Anthony Duclair stepped in and Schenn centered him and Holmstrom, sending Cal Ritchie to the Anders Lee-JG Pageau line. Ondrej Palat was on the fourth line with Casey Cizikas and Kyle MacLean.

If it felt like things could be on cruise control leading 3-0 against one of the league’s bottom feeders with 20 minutes to go, the Flames had other ideas. Led by captain Mikael Backlund’s tip-in 2:17 in, they were not going away. When Blake Colelman (why wasn’t he firesaled at the deadline?) made it 3-2 at 8:28, the rest of the game was damned uncomfortable.

The Blue Jackets won in a shootout, the Red Wings rallied from 2-0 down in the third to get a regulation point, and Pittsburgh was leading Utah in the third at the time of this writing. There is a major playoff race fight going on, and just because the Isles have been in playoff position for a couple months running doesn’t mean they’re not a bad couple games away from falling below the line.

Rittich Returns the Love

“I don’t know if I ever played in front of better fans than what we have here. We really appreciate them showing up to support and cheering for every single one of us.”

>>David Rittich after fans chanted his name in the first and third

Up Next

The Islanders begin a Canada tour next week, starting with a visit to free-falling Toronto on Tuesday before stops in Ottawa and Montreal.

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