In Las Vegas, the New York Islanders snapped out of a funk on Saturday and defeated the Golden Knights, 5-2.
Semyon Varlamov made 35 saves for the win, but did leave the crease late in the third with an apparent injury.
“He played good, especially when it was 0-0” the Isles Zach Parise said. “He made some huge saves right on the doorstep. He made some really big ones to keep it 0-0 and allowed us to get that lead.”
Ilya Sorokin made one save in relief.
“We were resilient and bent a little bit at times, but we didn’t break,” Lambert said. “Tonight, we had some saves when we needed it. I thought we played pretty solid in our zone. We spent some time in there again, but we played pretty solid.”
New York improved to 18-13-1.
Anders Less scored in the first period to give the Isles a 1-0 lead.
Reilly Smith scored the first of his two power plat goals i the middle frame to tie it, 1-1.
The Islanders replied with two goals in the period, the first from Hudson Fasching , for a 2-1 lead.
Then Simon Holmstrom hit for his first NHL goal to give them a 3-1 advantage headed to the third period.
“It was just trying to get a shot on net as quick as I could, and luckily it went in,” Homstrom said. “It was unbelievable. The teammates I play with are unbelievable, so it’s a great thing to share it with them.”
Vegas dropped to 22-10-1.
“We can’t expect at the puck drop to come out and make tic-tac-toe plays. It’s just not going to happen against good teams,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You might get away with it periodically. Most nights are gone. Most nights we haven’t [had it at home]. We’re going to keep pounding away on that.”
Smith’s second goal came in the third to cut the Isles lead down to 3-2.
Brock Nelson and Parise added added late empty-net goals for the 5-2 final.
Logan Thompson made 21 saves in the Knights loss.
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