Where have you heard this before . . .
The Islanders created a track meet with one of the league's top teams, and in doing so, proved they at least have the ability to compete with the best of them.
No, this was not last year's first round of the playoffs, when they ran up and down the ice with the Penguins in a six-game series loss. This was Thursday night at the Coliseum, and it was the Islanders running all over the place against the visiting Blackhawks — who, in equal measure, ran all over the Islanders.
The result was a 3-2 overtime win for the Islanders, as Kyle Okposo got the game-winner less than a minute into the 4-on-4 extra period. It was announced Wednesday that Okposo had not made the U.S. Olympic team — despite having the second-most points among U.S.-born players — and after he scored, the 13,618 started chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A."
With wins in Boston and Minnesota to end 2013, the Islanders now have their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov was making his second start in a row, and his eighth in the past nine games since returning from a groin injury. The first two periods were unquestionably the best he has played all season, and it was reminiscent of this past spring, when he carried to the team to their first postseason berth since 2007.
He allowed the Islanders to open the third period with a 2-1 lead, and on the man-advantage. But less than 20 seconds after Patrick Sharp came out of the penalty box, he drove the net, with the rebound getting slammed home by Ben Smith, tying it 2-2.
The Islanders (14-21-7) came into the game having just seven regulation wins on the season, four of them coming in the past six contests.
The last game they played in 2013 was against the Bruins in Boston, when they came back from a 3-1 deficit to win, 5-3. That was preceded by coming back from a 3-0 hole in Minnesota against the Wild to win, 5-4.
"I thought we played well in Boston," coach Jack Capuano said before the game in explaining why he kept the same lineup."
The Blackhaws (28-7-8) are the defending Stanley Cup champions and have proven to be among the elite yet again, coming in tied with the Ducks for the most points in the league (63), and having gone 8-1-2 in their past 11.
"This is a very unique hockey club they have," Capuano said. "They have a lot of guys going to Sochi [for the Olympics], and we're going to have to skate and we're going to have to be prepared to take away time and space with a lot of their skill guys. We're going to have to try to simplify things."
It was clear from the get-go that Nabokov was feeling it. Midway through the first, he got from post to post rather fast to deny Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, and later in the second period, he made allowed a long rebound right onto the stick of the always-dangerous Patrick Kane, but closed the door on his one-timed attempt.
By then, the Isles had already been staked to a 2-0 lead, with a great individual play coming from Casey Cizikas late in the first, as he stole the puck from Bryan Bickell and faked around goalie Corey Crawford to open the scoring. With just over eight minutes gone by in the second, Thomas Vanek got his 14th of the year on a rebound stuff-in, giving his team a two-goal cushion.
The Blackhawks had the shot advantage in the first period, 12-5, so as the Islanders looked for that elusive third goal — the team coming in with the horrid 0-17-5 record when scoring two or fewer — it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Chicago struck back. They were afforded that opportunity when Matt Carkner took a bad tripping penalty late in the second, and on the ensuing power play, Kris Versteeg made a great cross-ice saucer pass to Brent Seabrook, who nailed one-timer passed Nabokov to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
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