Riding down from the province of Quebec last night came a gift horse that the Islanders desperately needed, one that came in the form of a Canadiens team playing its second game in two days, with a backup goalie in Peter Budaj who tied a bow on at least two goals during the Islanders’ 4-3 win at Nassau Coliseum.
For an Islanders team that went into last night second-to-last in the league in goals per game (2.07), the offensive outburst created a collective sigh of relief and got it its first win since Nov. 5 and its second win the past 12 games (2-7-3).
“As a team we were in a slump, winning-wise,” said P.A. Parenteau, who opened the scoring 41 seconds into the second period when Budaj misplayed a puck behind his own net and Parenteau buried it. “I didn’t think we were playing that bad, but we couldn’t get wins. So it’s nice to get a little bounce like that and finally get rewarded for all the hard work we’re doing.”
As it has been for most of the season, the hard work was exemplified in a gritty fourth line made up of Jay Pandolfo and Matt Martin — for the past five games centered by Josh Bailey — who as a threesome generated three points and eight shots out of the team’s 33.
“We needed to find a way to win a hockey game here,” said Pandolfo, who scored his 100th career goal on a great feed from Bailey to make it 2-0 in the second. “It’s important we got this win just for our confidence overall as a team.”
Six minutes after Pandolfo’s goal, Mark Streit chipped in another easy one to make it 3-0, and then the Islanders (5-8-3) began to relax and turn the puck over. It resulted in goals from Max Pacioretty and Eric Cole, beating Rick DiPietro who replaced starter Evgeni Nabokov 7:55 into the first after Nabokov sustained a groin injury. (He is day-to-day and will be reevaluated today.)
“At the end they’re going to put pressure on and take chances and we battled hard,” said John Tavares, who assisted on Matt Moulson’s eventual game winner late in the second period that made it 4-2. “We finished strong. We had a lot of opportunities and generated a lot and played our style of game.”
After former Devil Brian Gionta scored a power play goal to make it 4-3 with just under five minutes left, the pressure mounted and that’s when, for the first time this season, DiPietro (24 saves) stood tall.
“Kind of doing the blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,” DiPietro said sarcastically. “It was a big-time team effort and definitely a win we needed.”