The Islanders have prospered despite injuries, but their resiliency may be tested much further depending on the severity of a lower-body injury to leading scorer Bo Horvat. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur team play has been able to close those holes,\u201d Anders Lee said. \u201cWe lost Bo and we know how important he is. We\u2019ve lost some extremely key players and we continue just to push through.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lee scored two power-play goals in a four-point effort as the Islanders topped the Pacific Division-leading Ducks, 5-2, on Thursday night at UBS Arena in the middle match of a three-game homestand. <\/p>\n
The Islanders (18-11-3) have won five of their last six and four straight at home. They are third in both the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Capitals and Hurricanes. <\/p>\n
But Horvat (19 goals, 12 assists) limped off the ice at 6:52 of the second period, keeping the weight off his left leg, and immediately retreated to the Islanders\u2019 room. His left ankle appeared to bend awkwardly as he fell after getting his right skate caught with Drew Helleson. <\/p>\n
Coach Patrick Roy listed him as day-to-day but had no other immediate update. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he doesn\u2019t come back, it\u2019s a big loss,\u201d said defenseman Ryan Pulock, whose first goal of the season closed the scoring at 14:46 of the third period. \u201cA guy that does everything for us. It\u2019s a long year and you\u2019re going to need everyone to step up.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Islanders, missing Kyle Palmieri (left knee) for the season, had just gotten Jean-Gabriel Pageau back for Tuesday\u2019s 5-4, four-round shootout win over Las Vegas after he sat out eight games with an upper-body injury. <\/p>\n
Top-six wing Jonathan Drouin (lower body) missed his fifth game but participated in Thursday\u2019s morning skate \u2014 his first time on ice with teammates since Dec. 4 \u2014 and Roy said he\u2019s likely to play Saturday against the Lightning. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great effort by everyone, especially losing Bo,\u201d Roy said. \u201cI thought that we showed some swagger or presence by doing the right things and playing the way we played in that third period.\u201d <\/p>\n
David Rittich made 31 saves for the Islanders. Ville Husso made 32 saves for the Ducks (19-11-1), whose winning streak was snapped at three games. <\/p>\n
The Ducks closed to 3-2 on Troy Terry\u2019s shorthanded goal at 2:37 of the third period, but Simon Holmstrom, speeding around defenseman Olen Zellweger to tuck in a backhander at the right post, notched his second goal in two games after a 17-game goal drought to make it 4-2 at 6:06. <\/p>\n
Rookie defenseman Travis Mitchell opened the scoring at 8:18 of the first period with his first career goal as the Islanders got two tallies from defensemen not named Matthew Schaefer for the first time this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty unbelievable to actually to score a goal in the NHL,\u201d said Mitchell, who raced into the left circle coming off the bench for a good look after defenseman Scott Mayfield\u2019s hard shot ricocheted off the end wall to him. \u201cYou dream of it as a kid playing basement hockey. To turn that into reality is pretty cool.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lee, the net-front presence for the second power-play unit, tipped defenseman Tony DeAngelo\u2019s shot to make it 2-0 at 10:16 of the first period and shoveled in a backhander off DeAngelo\u2019s assist at 19:08. It was only the second time this season the Islanders scored two power-play goals. <\/p>\n
\u201cTony delivers the puck for me, and that\u2019s a big key,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe talk about on our unit. We\u2019re getting out there with 20 seconds left. We\u2019re not going to have much time to do much with it.\u201d <\/p>\n
It gave Lee 81 career power-play goals as he moved past Pat LaFontaine \u2014 who will be inducted into the Islanders\u2019 Hall of Fame on Saturday \u2014 for eighth on the franchise list. His 297 career goals broke a tie with Brock Nelson for fifth in Islanders history and also moved him past Hall of Famer Clark Gillies for fourth in franchise history with his 873rd game. <\/p>\n
Notes & quotes: On Jewish Heritage Night, the Islanders introduced 97-year-old Holocaust survivor Edith Gross of Plainview during a first-period stoppage. Gross still frequently speaks to both students and corporate leaders about her experience .\u2002.\u2002. The Islanders improved to 6-0-0 against the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\tAndrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John\u2019s and MLB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders have prospered despite injuries, but their resiliency may be tested much further depending on the severity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,50813,12745],"class_list":{"0":"post-92001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-gamer","12":"tag-new-york-islanders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}