Isles cool Vegas in OT

On Long Island, Ryan Pulock struck on the power play, in overtime, for the Islanders in a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.

“He (Mathew Barzal) controlled the puck well,” Pulock said of Barzal. “He was cutting back. Obviously, they did a pretty good job until they took the penalty, but it’s huge when you can get a [power play] like that.”

Ryan Pulock scorted the OT winner for Islanders – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves in the win.

Cal Clutterbuck and Brock Nelson scored for the Isles in regulation.

“All year, the goalies have backed us up,” Nelson said. “[Varlamov] today, a couple of big saves in the second (period). It just seems normal for those guys. They always back us up, so it’s nice having those guys behind us.”

Jonathan Marchessault and Alex Tuch were the Vegas strikers.

“Four lines, we just kept coming at them,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “We stayed on the puck, we won our battles. We didn’t deviate from some of the predictability stuff that we like.”

[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Islanders highlights]

Malcolm Subban made 28 saves in the loss.

“Even with this loss, I still look at [the trip] as successful,” Tuch saod. “We still got a point, we got five out of six points on the road. The Islanders are a really good team right now, they’ve been playing really well. It was a little bit different style. It wasn’t just back and forth, it was a lot more possession in each zone.

“You had to bear down in the defensive zone and you try to bury your chances and get as many pucks and bodies to the net in the offensive zone. It was a little bit more of a muck and grind kind of game. Honestly, there was a lot of physicality. It was almost like a playoff hockey game out there.”