PITTSBURGH — Islanders coach Barry Trotz insists his team isn’t keeping track of its torrid start, even as the weeks pass and the victories pile up.
Probably time to start.
Brock Nelson’s second goal of the game 2:55 into overtime capped another frantic comeback to lift the Islanders to a 5-4 victory over the Penguins on Tuesday night, extending their points streak to 15 games, tied for the longest in franchise history.
“Our team would have no clue if we won 10 in a row or five in a row,” Trotz said. “We would just know we haven’t lost in a while. That’s really been our mentality.”
One that seems to suit the Islanders just fine. Ahead. Behind. It doesn’t matter. They are playing with a tenacity that has kept them unbeaten in regulation since Oct. 11. The only blemish over the last five-plus weeks came Nov. 7, when the Penguins scrambled back from three goals down to stun the Islanders in overtime.
The Islanders returned the favor when goals by Josh Bailey and Ryan Pulock in the final 4:29 of regulation forced overtime. Nelson won it when he fired a shot at Matt Murray that trickled to the goaltender’s right. Nelson tapped the rebound into the open net for his sixth goal of the season.
Semyon Varlamov makes one of his 27 saves during the Islanders’ win.AP“It’s fun when you’re winning games,” Nelson said. “So right now, we’re showing up, working hard and believing in each other. Off that, you can build confidence in a game.”
Anthony Beauvillier added his seventh goal and Semyon Varlamov stopped 27 shots as the Islanders equaled a points streak achieved three other times, the last by the 1981-82 club that put together a 15-0-0 stretch on its way to a third straight Stanley Cup. The Islanders will look to make history when they host the Penguins on Thursday on the back end of a home-and-home.
It’s an attempt that looked in serious jeopardy when the Islanders were trailing by two goals with less than five minutes to play. Yet just as they did on Saturday night in Philadelphia — when they erased a three-goal third-period deficit to survive in a shootout — the Islanders simply would not go away.
Bailey’s goal got New York back within one. Pulock tied it when he drilled a slap shot from just inside the blue line with 1:32 remaining after the Islanders pulled Varlamov for an extra skater. Nelson’s tap helped them become the first team ever to win consecutive games in which they trailed by multiple goals with less than seven minutes left in regulation.
“Lots of character, lots of leadership in this room,” Beauvillier said. “We don’t want to keep going down every game. Obviously, we want to play with the lead, but one of those games where those points are going to count at the end of the year.”
