SAN JOSE, Calif. — Even when faced with another hot team, the Islanders still kept their point streak going.
Logan Couture scored in overtime for the second straight game, giving the Sharks a 2-1 win over coach Barry Trotz’s streaking Islanders on Saturday night. Couture scored at 2:30 of the extra period to lead the Sharks to their eighth win in nine games.
Casey Cizikas scored and Semyon Varlamov finished with 24 saves for New York, which extended its franchise record by earning a point for the 17th straight game (15-0-2).
“The first five minutes they came at us pretty hard,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought we settled in after that. For the rest of the game I thought we played pretty well.
“It really came down to that one play at the end. They have the No. 1 (penalty-kill) in the league for a reason. They put a lot of heat on you. They take away a lot of your options. They jam you up in small spaces and jump. I thought we adjusted to that as the game went on and we kept adjusting to their game. We were trying to get a little more zone time and some more looks but we couldn’t, but it came down to just that one play at the end.”
Marcus Sorensen also scored and Martin Jones stopped 27 shots for San Jose. The Sharks tied an NHL record with their 43rd straight win in a game it allowed two goals or fewer. The streak, which matched the mark set by Pittsburgh from Feb. 21, 2012 to Oct. 17 2013, dates back to March 10, 2018.
Couture, who had the overtime winner in Thursday’s 2-1 victory over Vegas, extended his point streak to six games with three goals and seven assists over that stretch.
Sorensen got the game’s first goal at 6:38 of the second as he tipped a pass from Mario Ferraro for his fourth goal.
The Islanders tied it 27 seconds later when Cizikas tipped Adam Pelech’s shot from the point for his fourth. San Jose challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld.
The Isles didn’t get a shot on goal until Devon Toews’ wrister from eight feet out at 6:46 of the first and was held to just seven shots in the first period.
Their luck wasn’t any better on the man-advantage as the Islanders were 0 for 6 on power plays against the NHL’s best penalty-killing unit.
Sharks were missing center Tomas Hertl (lower body), who was out of the lineup for a second straight game. San Jose’s second-leading scorer sustained a blow to his right knee in Anaheim on Nov. 14, when he scored in his fifth straight game.
