Isles win!

In Ottawa, the New York Islanders ended an ugly, 11-game losing streak on Tuesday with a 5-3 win over the Senators.

Anders Lee hit for a pair of goals for the Islanders.

“It’s incredible to think about what we’ve gone through in the last month,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “I’ve never gone through it. These guys have never gone through it.”

Oliver Wahlstrom and Kieffer Bellows kicked in single markers and two points each in the win.

The Islanders improved to 6-10-5.

“The way we just stuck together and battled, I’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” Trotz said. “Finally, they got rewarded. It felt good. It felt good to have a little life in the dressing room after the game. Music blaring and guys ribbing each other.”

New York was 0-8-3 on the skid.

“I think it’s just a sense of relief,” Lee said. “It’s been a tough stretch. We stuck together and we started to build on our game a little bit the last few nights, but we hadn’t been able to get that extra point in overtime. It starts to wear on you quite a bit. So for us to come out tonight and get the win that we needed, play the right way for good stretches of time, it’s exactly what we needed out of our group.”

Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves in the Isles win.

Alex Formenton and Josh Norris had goals for the Senators.

“At the end of the day, you could tell some of the guys were a little tired there as the game went on,” Ottawa’s Thomas Chabot said. “But I mean, at the end of the day, the main thing for us is really looking back at the five games in seven days we had. We’ve had a good stretch (3-2-0), and we’re starting to turn things around, but obviously this is another learning game.”

Nick Holden scored in the third period to get the Sens within 4-2.

“We were able to capitalize tonight,” New York’s Austin Czarnik said. “Obviously, in the past games it’s been a little bit harder, but I think here we were able to capitalize on our chances and the guys just worked hard. Once you get one, you get two and it starts to go your way. Just proud of everyone here.”

Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored just past the midway point of the third period to make the final, 5-2, for the Isles.

“I think we’re happy where our game is going the past couple games,” Pageau said. “We’re playing some good hockey. We don’t really get the bounces that we deserve, but we’re working extremely hard and we’re sacrificing and we’re doing all the right things. We’re just so happy it’s behind us. We got the win and now we’re looking forward to the next game.”

Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves in the Ottawa loss.

“We played five games in seven nights and we just didn’t have the same sharpness with our execution tonight,” Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith said. “I wouldn’t say that it was the effort, we just weren’t playing as smart. We had some chances and we didn’t put it in. We didn’t break out as good. At the end of the day, you don’t get the result you wanted.”