OTTAWA, Ontario — The Islanders heeded the call of coach Jack Capuano to put more pucks on the net.
They did it more than they had all season, and needed every last one of them to escape with a shootout victory over the Senators.
The Islanders fired 54 shots through overtime, and skated off with a 5-4 win Friday night when Frans Nielsen scored the lone goal in the shootout.
“I’m sure it’s going to make our coach feel good,” Isles captain John Tavares said. “He’s always talking about getting a lot of pucks to the net and shots.”
Nielsen scored the tying goal in the third period and then netted the shootout winner. He moved in on goalie Robin Lehner and put a backhand in on his team’s second and last shot of the tiebreaker.
The Islanders (5-5-3), who won for the third time in 10 games, also had goals from Matt Martin, Tavares and Pierre-Marc Bouchard in regulation. Evgeni Nabokov stopped 27 shots for the Isles, who erased a pair of two-goal deficits.
“We played well, and I thought structurally we were good,” Capuano said. “You want to get rewarded when you play well, and the guys’ work ethic is where it needs to be.”
Erik Condra, Bobby Ryan, Mika Zibanejad and Clarke MacArthur scored for Ottawa (4-6-3). Lehner made the biggest contribution with 53 saves, including one on Thomas Vanek on a breakaway in overtime.
Ottawa took a 4-3 lead into the second intermission after a frantic finish to the period, in which two Senators were in the penalty box for the final 55 seconds. While the Islanders couldn’t capitalize, they evened the scoring with 3:14 left on Nielsen’s goal.
