The Islanders began Tuesday night’s matchup with the Stars the same way they have several other games this season: Outshooting their opponent by a gaping margin, controlling the pace of play and still emerging from the first period in deadlocked game.
As coach Barry Trotz recently said, nothing has been coming easily. The Islanders, struggling again to continue their heavyweight play after the opening 20 minutes, had to come from behind to beat the Stars 4-3 on Anthony Beauvillier’s second goal of the night, a breakaway in overtime.
It was the Islanders’ eighth overtime win this season, a franchise record.
“We talk about playing to our identity and sticking with the process, I like the fact that we’ve done that,” Trotz said after the victory. “We haven’t deviated from it and we’re getting rewarded for it. Getting late goals, timely power-play goal at the end, big penalty kill and then you have overtime.”
Trotz said he considered it a “good character test,” because the Islanders kept their heads in the game although Brock Nelson’s game-tying tally late in the third was wiped off the board when Anders Lee was called for interfering with Stars netminder Ben Bishop after a challenge.
But then Mathew Barzal forced overtime, cradling the puck with his stick and wristing it through his own legs and into the net at 16:01 of the third period.
After holding Dallas to just seven shots on goal in a 1-1 first period, the Islanders let the Stars’ production balloon to 21 shots through the second.
The Stars pounced whenever they had the chance, adding another goal in the second before taking a 3-2 lead in the third. The Islanders couldn’t get a shot on goal in the third until almost eight minutes in. But when Dallas gifted the Islanders a late third-period power play, Barzal finished what Nelson started to force the home team’s 16th overtime of the season.
The Stars looked as if they hadn’t yet gotten off the plane as Beauvillier opened up the scoring just a minute and 30 seconds into play, backhanding a feed from Ryan Pulock past Bishop.
It wasn’t until Casey Cizikas took a seat in the penalty box for interference at 13:19 that the Stars gained some momentum, with Denis Gurianov capitalizing on the man-advantage at 14:08 to tie it.
Once again losing their competitive edge coming out of the intermission, the Islanders allowed the Stars to take their first lead of the night after Nelson turned the puck over inside Dallas’ zone. Jason Dickson found the back of the net after a three-on-two rush to go up 2-1 at 12:12.
But Derick Brassard struck just under a minute-and-a-half later, netting his first goal in 19 games, squeezing the puck past Bishop from an impossible angle at 13:38. Kieffer Bellows, who made his NHL debut, jump-started the play after helping force a turnover, carrying the puck into the zone and then registering an assist on Brassard’s tally for his first NHL point.
“We’re going to exhale from now ’til practice [Wednesday] and then we’ll get back to work,” Trotz said. “Every point right now is so crucial. We have a couple game in hand on some teams. They don’t mean anything unless you win. But if you win them, you put a lot of pressure on the other teams. Our focus will be enjoy the win, once it turns midnight, we’ll look at the L.A. Kings.”
