An unfamiliar feeling enveloped UBS Arena as the Islanders exited the ice on Saturday night with the bye week and All-Star break ahead of them. It just might have been optimism.

The Islanders haven’t had many reasons to feel good about themselves in January, but Saturday marked the first time since late December that they won back-to-back games, as they beat the Golden Knights, 2-1, when Mathew Barzal scored the winning goal with 32 seconds left in a pulsating overtime.

Following a run of 10 losses in 11 games spanning most of the month, it feels as though the worst might be behind the Islanders, who can now spend the next week resting and resetting for a run at the playoffs.

“To me,” coach Lane Lambert said, “it’s just reassurance that we have a group here that can do great things.”

For most of the night, the Islanders played on their front feet, forcing Vegas netminder Logan Thompson to work and looking to be the team with more energy, even though both clubs were coming off games Friday. But all that energy only got the Islanders as far as a 1-1 tie after 40 minutes.

The Golden Knights took the momentum from the equalizer they scored late in the second period and carried it into the third, but goaltender Semyon Varlamov — who made 44 saves — came up big for the Islanders, who went into a defensive shell in the final minutes and played for the point.

Eventually, they got two points as Varlamov stopped William Carrier’s penalty shot 28 seconds into overtime, and Barzal netted the winner, calmly picking his spot and blasting a wrister past Thompson.

“Just had a lane,” said Barzal, who scored for the first time since Jan. 5. “Wanted to let one go.”

Regarding the penalty shot, which was called after Adam Pelech hauled down Carrier on his way to the Islanders’ net, Varlamov said it was the first one he’d faced in overtime in “a while.”

“It’s nerve-racking for both of us, for the shooter and the goalie,” Varlamov said. “It worked out for me. I was pretty happy to make that save.”

It wasn’t the only brilliant save Varlamov had. He also stopped Reilly Smith from shooting into what looked like an open net on the backdoor in the second period, getting out his paddle and desperately deflecting the puck. The 44 saves are the most Varlamov has had in a game since March 7, 2022.

Anders Lee put the Islanders on the board 3:52 into the second, getting on a loose puck from Kyle Palmieri’s drive to the net, punctuating another night in which the second line was by far the best for the Islanders.

Carrier, who gave the Islanders issues all night on Vegas’ third line, knotted the score 1-1 at 16:08 of the second, taking advantage of a defensive lapse as the Islanders left him all alone in front and he snapped home a feed from Chandler Stephenson behind the net.

That score carried into overtime, when the Islanders finally got the goal they needed.

“That was huge,” Barzal said. “Kind of puts us right back in the hunt. I’m sure we’re gonna be hungry to have a good start right after the break.”

The road ahead is still long, and the Islanders need a lot to happen. Two wins don’t paper over the issues that plagued them all month, the injuries they’re still dealing with or the power play that still isn’t scoring.

But thanks in part to some luck, with the Penguins also struggling in January, the Islanders are just two points behind Pittsburgh (which has three games in hand) for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Getting to triple-digit points might be out of the question, as the Islanders would need 45 points from their last 30 games to do so, but it’s possible that reaching 100 won’t be necessary to get into the tournament.

Just a few days ago, the Islanders were a group in desperate need of something positive. Now they’ve got it, and it is no small deal that they can go into the break feeling good about themselves.

“We’re not far behind, that’s the first thing,” Lambert said. “The second thing is, we went through a tough patch and we’re coming out of it. When you play the way we did last night and play the way we did tonight, we can have a lot of success.”