ELMONT, NY — The New York Islanders returned home to UBS Arena Saturday, and Kyle Palmieri made sure it would be a happy homecoming scoring twice, including a late empty netter, giving the home team a much needed 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.
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The game’s first scoring opportunity and shot came from the Islanders’ second line four minutes in. Max Tsyplakov, on a 2-on-1, tried to stop right in front of the net and slide the puck to Palmieri, but it never got there as Binnington intercepted the pass with his glove.
Palmieri got another chance as Brock Nelson found him with a cross-ice pass, but the shot fluttered over the wide-open net. Binnington was down and out, but Palmieri didn’t get all of the shot from the left faceoff dot.
The second line for New York finally broke through to open the scoring with just over a minute to go in the opening frame. Blues defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph turned it over to Nelson, who skated into the zone before sending it to Palmieri, who made no mistake this time and scored his eighth goal of the season, giving the Isles a 1-0 lead.
After a quiet first period from the Blues, they turned up the heat to start the second. The first three minutes were almost entirely spent in the Islanders zone but some key blocks and saves from Sorokin kept St. Louis off the scoring sheet.
The Islanders were soon awarded the first power play of the game and had some good looks but were unable to convert. They spent most of the time in the offensive zone and threw the puck toward the net whenever they could, but only two found their way to the St. Louis goalie.
Nine minutes later, the team was back on the man-advantage and made quick work of it. Crisp puck movement led to Tsyplakov dishing the puck from behind the net to Nelson, who roofed it into the top of the net from his knees, giving the Islanders a 2-0 lead late in the second.
Nelson’s goal and assist place him 10th all-time in franchise points with 543, moving him past Islanders great Bob Bourne. John Tonelli is next on the list with 544 points.
The end of the period saw a push from the Blues, but Sorokin and New York stood strong amidst a few high-quality chances from their opposition.
Nathan Walker received a pass with only Sorokin ahead of him, but he managed to do the splits and denied his shot, pushing the Islanders 2-0 lead into the third.
The third period started with the Blues taking all of the momentum. Rookie defenseman Isaiah George cross-checked Robert Thomas, and got sent to the penalty box.
No time was wasted as just 10 seconds in, Jake Neighbours cut the Islanders lead in half from a backdoor play assisted by Pavel Buchnevich.
The St. Louis shot-barrage kept coming as New York was caught in their zone for essentially the first half of the third. They were outshot 7-2 but Sorokin stood tall in front of a tired defense that struggled to get out of their own zone.
The chances eventually slowed and with three minutes remaining the Islanders went from desperately defending to looking for insurance.
Captain Anders Lee got robbed by Binnington’s glove with three minutes left but after the team survived a 6-on-5 attack, Palmieri put the game away with an empty net wit 37 seconds remaining.
The Islanders host the Detroit Red Wings at UBS Arena on Monday at 7:30 PM.
