In Brooklyn Saturday, the New York Islanders’ Jaroslav Halak made 46 saves in a 4-3 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Isles were strafed in the first period and Halak made 25 of his saves in the opening frame.
“I’m tired, I’m not going to lie to you,” Halak said. “It’s a big win. Two points that we need. We need every point right now. We’re going to try to keep climbing the ladder over there. Big effort obviously in the third, and the second as well. We did a lot of good things in the second and third. Obviously we know that the first wasn’t our best, but we found a way and that’s what good teams do.”
The win pushed the Isles to 26-22-5 and kept them from sliding further back in the Metropolitan Division.
But the Islanders needed a third period rally and a tighter defensive scheme in the final 20 minutes to get the win.
Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle struck for quick goal in the third period to erase a 3-2 deficit.
“It’s definitely nice,” Nelson said. “We talked about having a good road trip, we get five of six points right before the (All-Star) break, and we come out of the break and lay two eggs and not get any points with how tight the standings are. We’re trying to make a push now with 29 games left. It’s nice to come back, and hopefully we can build off this.”
Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno struck for Columbus’ goals
“There’s no point of going down the road of feeling sorry for yourself or negative,” Foligno said. “There’s enough of that just surrounding us with things that have gone on here. We’ve got to find a way just to fight through it.”
The Jackets dropped to 27-21-4 with the loss, their third straight.
Josh Bailey and Nick Leddy also scored for the Islanders.
“We’re not sitting here feeling good if Jaro doesn’t have that first period,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said. “I think he was the only one that got the memo that it was a 7 o’clock start. But he was good.”
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Islanders highlights]
Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves in taking the loss.
The loss certainly intensifies the burning fuse in Columbus.
“We found a way to lose tonight’s game. I thought we showed some resiliency when they took the lead, we come back and score two to lead going into the third,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said after the loss. “We need to play with the lead and try to carry the play. I think we self-destruct a little bit. I don’t want to take any credit away from them; they can score goals. But I think we self-destruct early on in that third period.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.