It’s hard to know what to make of the Islanders.
Last week, they saw their losing streak extend to seven games as they dropped near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, their season seemingly on the verge of collapsing.
They responded by winning three straight heading into yesterday’s game, including a victory over Atlanta on Saturday, when they outshot the Thrashers, 49-10.
But just over two minutes into the third against the Sharks yesterday, the Isles trailed 2-0 and had mustered only nine shots. Worse, Evgeni Nabokov returned after leaving the game in the second with a cut above his nose.
Naturally, the Islanders stormed back and scored three third period goals and beat the Sharks 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum, leaving them just one point out of the playoffs.
“We didn’t have a great first 40 minutes,” Mike Comrie said, putting it mildly.
Andy Hilbert punched in a loose puck 3:22 into the third to finally get the Isles going and then Comrie showed off a sparkling move to get past Kyle McLaren on a breakaway, to score the tying goal just 59 seconds later.
“It was just one of those plays where I had some speed and was able to catch the defenseman going laterally,” Comrie said. “It works once in a while. I probably try it a little too often.”
Freddy Meyer, who notched his first goal of the season last Thursday on an empty net, scored the game-winner, wristing one past Nabokov at 11:19 of the third.
“We knew we needed to get more shots than we had coming into third,” Meyer said.
And even though the Islanders said they didn’t notice a difference in Nabokov after he came back from the injury that he suffered when a Radek Martinek shot slammed into his mask, he didn’t play nearly as well as he had earlier.
“I’m not sure that had an effect on him,” Ted Nolan said. “But we had to attack in the third, no matter what.”
That’s what they will have to have the remainder of the season if they want to stay in the race. The trade deadline is only a week away and the Isles find themselves in a similar situation to a year ago: scrambling to qualify for the postseason.
“We dug ourselves a hole the previous couple weeks,” Comrie said. “We know what’s at stake. It seems like we’ve been watching the standings for a couple months now and every game is crucial.”
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Nolan wasn’t behind the bench in the first period. He was on the phone with his son, Jordan, whose teammate with the Windsor Spitfires collapsed and died yesterday.
Mickey Renaud, 19, was the captain of the junior team.
“He was my son’s teammate and good friend,” Nolan said. “I had to spend time with him.”
Andy Sutton left the game late in the third after he hurt his left hamstring checking Jeremy Roenick. They will almost certainly have to call someone up for tomorrow’s game in Washington.
“I’ll leave that up to [GM] Garth [Snow] and flip a coin,” said Nolan, whose team is running out of defensemen.
Blake Comeau left the game after he was boarded by Doug Murray in the third. Murray was called for a major and a game misconduct.