On Long Island, Brock Nelson struck for two goals and the New York Islanders defeated the New Jersey Devils, 5-1, on Saturday night.
Brock Nelson scored twice for the New York Islanders
“I like the way we played tonight,” New York’s Jordan Eberle said. “We grinded and battled for the most part and got back to our identity. That’s the identity you want to stick with.”
The Isles moved to within one point of third place in the East.
“This division is very capable of a 4-seed beating a 1-seed or a 3-seed beating a 2-seed,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “You don’t know. You want to play well, get as high as you can. … You want to feel good. You want to be healthy and you want to be playing a decent game going into the playoffs.”
Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves in the win.
“We mentioned it, we talked about it,” Eberle said. “We wanted to obviously finish off in the win column. This building has a lot of history behind it, a lot of teams, some Cups won here.”
Andreas Johnsson scored the Devils’ lone goal.
“They just played way harder,” Johnsson said. “Heavy forecheck. I don’t know how many pucks we passed away.
“Not a good game at all.”
Eberle, Mathew Barzal and Kyle Palmieri scored single makers for the Islanders.
“I loved the way he played today,” Trotz said. “What I saw today is the Kyle Palmieri that I’ve seen as an opposing coach. I love when he plays with that edge. He was skating, he was in the battle, he had a lot of detail to his game. He played quick and he got rewarded.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 22 saves in the loss.
“I’m hoping that we have more energy than we did tonight,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said.
New Jersey ends its season on Monday in Philadelphia.
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