John Tavares collected four points and recorded a hat trick as the New York Islanders defeated the Arizona Coyotes by a score of 5-3.
- Arizona Coyotes 3 (0-8-1, 1 point)
- New York Islanders 5 (5-3-1, 11 points)
- ARZ Goals: Anthony Duclair (2), Mario Kempe (2), Nick Cousins (1)
- NYI Goals: John Tavares 3 (6), Brock Nelson (5), Scott Mayfield (1)
- NHL, Final, Boxscore
- Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
For the 10th time in his career, Islanders captain John Tavares collected four points—including his seventh career hat-trick as the New York Islanders defended their home ice once again against a Western Conference foe.
Tavares and the offense finally got some help from the defensemen as Adam Pelech picked up three primary assists. Defenseman Scott Mayfield chipped in himself and got the first goal for the Islanders defense this season.
The first period opened up with Arizona forward Anthony Duclair scoring a power play goal off a rebound against Jaroslav Halak. As if giving up the first goal wasn’t enough, things were not looking good when the Isles were on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. During the kill, Casey Cizikas‘ stick broke and in an attempt to sweep the puck away, he lost his glove. He would stay on the ice and the Islanders would eventually kill the penalty as Cizikas would collect 2:01 in one shift. They escaped the first period only trailing 1-0.
Early in the second period, the fans got to see the chemistry Snow paid for when he acquired Jordan Eberle from the Oilers in the offseason. The 27-year old winger connected with the captain on a pass that Tavares would deflect over the shoulder of Coyotes goaltender, Louis Domingue. With that goal, Tavares passed Islander legend Bob Bourne with 239 goals for 7th on the all-time list of Islanders goals.
Just over 10 minutes later, Tavares would convert again on a play that was driven by Eberle making something out of nothing. Eberle skated into the zone and fell down after getting tangled up with the Coyotes defenseman. Where that would be the end of the play for most other skaters, Eberle made a second effort pass from his knees to swing it back to Pelech who would put it in front of the net for the captain. That goal would be point 545 for Tavares, making him 7th on the all-time Islanders points list. Instead of Bob Bourne, this time JT passed the JT from the previous generation – John Tonelli.
In the third period, the Isles had a 1-goal lead, and Isles fans know they can’t expect it to be a cakewalk. Before Isles fans could’ve even expressed their doubt, Arizona forward Mario Kempe scored his second of the season to tie the game.
Like many previous Islanders games, the infamous tie in the third period is where I came in doubt of the final outcome. The Coyotes don’t have a win yet and now they tied it up early in the third period. One could feel the momentum starting to shift. Until the Islanders got another power play.
Arizona defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson hooked Tavares in the which would make for a shift in momentum yet again. Streaky scorer Brock Nelson would convert to put the Islanders back on top. The Yotes would proceed to tie it up and the captain was called on yet again.
Another beautiful deflection from Tavares on a Pelech slap-pass would go on to be the game-winning goal. Mayfield would collect the first Islanders goal from a defenseman this season off a shot from the point.
On top of the impressive effort from Pelech and Mayfield, Eberle collected two assists as well bringing his total to six.
However, the biggest sign of things to look forward to is that the power play has now converted in two out of the last three games. Before the Islanders victory against the Rangers, they had no power play goals and went 0-for-20 until they converted against their rivals. Now, the power play is 1-for-5 and seeing chances more than ever in the last few contests. If you ask me, the team’s chemistry is growing as expected and games like this are a strong sign of that improvement.
Next up for the Isles is a trip to the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday when they’ll take on the Minnesota Wild. The puck is scheduled to drop at 8 p.m. ET.