DENVER — Away from home, the Islanders have discovered the winning formula.
Michael Grabner knocked in a shot from the slot at 1:46 of overtime, giving the Islanders a 2-1 win over the Avalanche on Friday night.
It was the sixth road win in a row for the Islanders, who forced overtime when Brock Nelson’s goal early in the third period evened the score.
“We’ve been a decent road team,” coach Jack Capuano said. “Simple hockey maybe, and doing the right things. Goaltending has been pretty good for us. Our special teams on the road over the last two weeks has been good.”
Brian Strait helped set up the winner with a pass to Grabner in the Avalanche zone. Grabner skated across the slot, appearing momentarily to lose control of the puck, before getting hold of it with his stick and circling back to unleash the shot from between the circles. He got enough on it to get it past Semyon Varlamov.
“The puck bounced a little bit,” Grabner said. “I don’t know if my stick got caught on the boards or the ref there, I almost lost it and couldn’t control the puck, but I got it back in the corner. The guys opened up some room by driving to the net and I got a chance to shoot from the hash marks.”
Kevin Poulin, who had 30 saves, won his fourth straight decision and improved to 5-1 in his last six games. He credited the recent road success to the team’s increasing rapport with one another.
“Earlier in the season, we didn’t have the groove on the road,” Poulin said. “As the season goes on, you create chemistry. I thought we’ve played really well defensively the last three or four games.”