NHL

Islanders top Devils in shootout to cap sloppy game

No, it was not the prettiest, but in the end, it’s not as if the Islanders care.

On Friday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, the Islanders managed to open their season with a 4-3 shootout win over the Devils in a game that was not very convincing in proving that the preseason was over.

“It was a little bit more wide-open than I anticipated,” said coach Jack Capuano, insistent his team created enough offense to be happy about. “From game to game, you don’t know what to expect. But I thought it was a real good hockey game.”

It ended when Matt Moulson lifted one over Martin Brodeur’s right shoulder in the sixth round of the shootout, with neither team managing to net one before that moment in the skills competition. It ended anticlimactically for what seemed to be shaping into a night of redemption for Brodeur, who started his 19th consecutive home-opener, only mildly bittersweet because the night before his streak of season-openers ended at an NHL record of 18, with Cory Schneider playing in a 3-0 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

“The puck kind of hopped up,” Moulson said about the winning tally, “and I found a way to chip it in.”

It seemed almost appropriate, as both teams had their stars shut down — most notably John Tavares’ Islanders line, which had very little time and space — and teetered back and forth by the play of both goaltenders.

“I feel like I’m supposed to feel in the first game, I guess,” said the Islanders’ Evgeni Nabokov, who finished with 26 saves, some of them spectacular, and who was unsure if he’s going to play the second part of this back-to-back Saturday night in the Coliseum against the Blue Jackets.

“You can play as many preseason games as you want, but at the end of the day, when you start, it’s a different game. The adrenaline is flowing, it’s hot out there and you’re battling and the game is fast, but that’s where your focus comes in.

“I was trying to concentrate and just make a save for the guys when I can,” he continued. “Sometimes you’re able to, sometimes you not.”

Nabokov especially had trouble with new addition Damien Brunner, who scored his first two goals as a Devil, the second with 7:34 gone by in the third to tie it 3-3. His two goals were negated on the Isles’ side by Michael Grabner, the speedster opening his season with a two-goal performance of his own, which could have easily been a hat trick if he buried yet another breakaway with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

“It was our first regular season game, and there is some stuff we can be better at, especially in the ‘D’ zone,” Grabner. said “But we did some good things too.”

Grabner also had a primary assist on Frans Neilsen’s third-period goal, a nice give-and-go that gave the Islanders their first lead at 3-2, when Brodeur whiffed on a poke check. The early part of the game was not Brodeur’s finest work, as leads of 1-0 and 2-1 (in the second period from Michael Ryder’s first goal as a Devil) both evaporated.

Yet, even in the overtime there were chances aplenty, chances that went for naught until Moulson tied a bow on the proceedings in the shootout.

“Some of the wins we got last year were a lot like tonight,” Moulson said. “Not necessarily our best game, but we find ways to win.”