In Elmont, the Islanders’ Simon Holmstrom snapped a 1-1 tie midway through the third period on Wednesday night to send New York to a 1-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
“Just a good forecheck from our line (with Horvat and Matt Martin) there,” Holmstrom said. “… I got a good pass from Bo there and I was just trying to hit the net.
” … It was just unbelievable. It was just a great goal to score and a huge win for us.”
Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves in the Isles win.
“We did what we had to do to come out with the two points,” New York forward Zach Parise said. “We need a lot of those at this time of year; it doesn’t matter how you do it. We took care of business.”
The Islanders improved to 30-24-7.
“Not only did we come up with the [game-winning] goal, but I thought we did a [really] good job defending in the third,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “Much better than we did in the second period.”
New York took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike by Sebastian Aho.
“That’s what you need,” Lambert said of secondary scoring. “We’re going to have to continue to have that.”
Nikolaj Ehlers was the lone striker for the Jets, his second period goal tied the game, 1-1.
“We haven’t scored enough to win games,” Ehlers said. “When we have scored, we’ve had traffic in front of the net. So, that’s something [we’ve] got to continue doing.”
It was Ehlers’ 500th career NHL game.
Winnipeg dropped to 35-22-1/
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Winnipeg forward Adam Lowry said. “You obviously need the results, [but] at the same time, we’re building for the playoffs. We’re [going to] make sure we’re comfortable in these type [of] games. So, obviously you want to get the results, and dropping three of four on the road is never a good thing.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves in the Jets loss.
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