One game into his NHL career and Anders Lee already has the Islanders in a position for the playoffs, somewhere they haven’t been since 2007.
Lee, who signed an entry-level deal with the Islanders two days ago, scored a goal on his first shot, helping the Islanders to a 5-2 victory over the Jets Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum.
“I was so surprised, I just threw it on there and it happened to go in,” he said. “The boys came to congratulate me. It was pretty awesome.”
The win gave the Islanders 39 points, which put them in a tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference with the Devils, who have played one fewer game. They moved ahead of the Rangers, who had the night off.
On Lee’s first career shot, he unleashed a knuckler from the left point that got past Ondrej Pavelec. Lee had just one practice with the team on Monday, but had no problem clicking with his linemates, Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas, who both assisted on his goal.
“My head was spinning at that point,” Lee said. “The speed of the game and stuff like that, it was really exciting. … [I am] just trying to enjoy it and soak it all in.”
On Saturday, Lee was playing with Notre Dame in the NCAA Division I college hockey tournament, on Monday he signed a pro contract and practiced with the Islanders, and yesterday, the 2009 draft pick made his debut.
“Easy as that. Nice play,” Matt Moulson said. “Put it on net, and you never know what can happen. He played well for his first game.”
It was just the Islanders’ seventh home victory in 20 games, but their fifth in six overall. Some may be surprised the Islanders are in the playoff discussion, but not coach Jack Capuano, who said the team talked about the postseason before the season.
“We talked about it this summer,” he said. “The last month, they wanted to play meaningful games. They are in a position to do that now.”
Despite having played more games than the teams they are competing with, the Islanders have a favorable schedule, with eight of their final 11 games against teams that aren’t in the top eight in the conference.
The Islanders and Jets were playing on back-to-back nights, but the Isles were the sharper team, generating more scoring chances and outshooting the Jets 38-25. With the game tied at 2, Frans Nielsen scored a power play goal with under 30 seconds in the second period, which turned out to be the eventual game-winner. Moulson and John Tavares added third period goals.
“We got to keep going. Every game is important,” Moulson said. “We’ve played a lot of important games over the past couple of weeks and they only become more important. We know what we have to do.”