Mathew Barzal’s churning legs rescue Islanders from brink in Game 4

Credit: Apr 27, 2024; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal (13) skates off the ice after scoring the game winning goal in the second overtime against the Carolina Hurricanes in game four of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Just as one would have expected, it was the New York Islanders who came out hot out of the gate with their season on the line in front of their home fans in Game 4 Saturday at UBS Arena. Similarly to Game 3, however, the Carolina Hurricanes popped the balloon by to capitalizing on the Islanders’ mistakes.

The home team dominated the opening five-plus minutes of the game, but an Anders Lee tripping penalty shifted all the momentum in favor of the Hurricanes. That’s been a theme all year for this Islanders team: not being able to capitalize on their opportunities to then have it come back and bite them in the butt. It didn’t bode well for them against an opportunistic team like the Hurricanes.

Seth Jarvis opened up the scoring on the power play at the 8:00 mark of the opening frame.

Carolina did an incredible job at backtracking through the middle of the ice after taking the 1-0 lead. Any time it felt like the Islanders could have an odd-man rush, there were three or four Canes back to break it up — they didn’t give up much. UBS Arena felt a tad lifeless at the end of the first period, but in fairness, the fans didn’t have much to cheer about.

The Islanders didn’t have much going offensively in the second period, but there weren’t any changes made to the lines to shake things up.

“It’s tight out there”, Islanders center Mat Barzal said. “I don’t think I’ve been in a series where the checking is this tight — on both sides really.”

Barzal took matters into his own hands at the 10:10 mark of the middle frame to wake up the building. Barzal made an incredible play off a zone entry to get down to the bottom of the circles, curl up, and zip a shot high to the glove side of Freddie Andersen from the high slot.

https://x.com/JLazzy23/status/1784302598847094835

Barzal is one of the best players in the NHL at the “cutback,” which is best described as when a puck carrier recognizes that there isn’t a ton of space in front of them, so they change directions, typically towards the boards to create some separation from the defender and gain more time and space.

Puck possession made the difference for the Islanders in this game, and Barzal’s cutbacks were paramount.

“We had a lot of cutbacks and tried to bring the puck back up,” Isles coach Patrick Roy said about Barzal’s first goal. “It’s nice to see Barzy driving wide, and coming back — and cutting back, and coming up on top, but if there’s nobody in front of the net, that shot does not go in. You need traffic, you need guys sacrificing their bodies for the cause of the team and that’s what we had today.”

The Islanders were on their heels for the final few minutes of the second period, but thanks to a tripping penalty on Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, they started the final frame on the power play.

J.G. Pageau converted on their first man advantage of the day to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead with 18:22 remaining in the 3rd period. The Islanders had everything going for them yet again, but a Robert Bortuzzo penalty would give the Hurricanes a chance to tie the game late.

Stefan Noesen came up big in the third period for the second time in this series. Martin Necas and Teuvo Teravainen made beautiful plays before Noesen was able to knot the game up on a backdoor tap-in.

This game needed overtime.

The Hurricanes were the better team for the majority of the first overtime, but both teams would trade some quality chances. Andersen and Semyon Varlamov both looked incredibly composed in their respective nets, and it felt like this game was going to take a while to find the game-winner.

“The mentality was to just take one game at a time, that’s all you could do,” Varlamov said. “You don’t look at the bigger picture. You come in and you focus on the game you play tonight, and you play your best.”

Four periods weren’t enough to decide Game 4.

It didn’t take long in the second overtime to find the winner. It was Barzal who stepped up when they needed it earlier in the game, and it was he yet again who would get a piece of the Bortuzzo shot from the point to give the Islanders their first win of the series.

“Getting in front of the net on the point shot — we did a much better job today than we did in Game 3. That was a nice team effort”, Roy said.

The win felt extra special for Varlamov considering that Saturday was his 36th birthday. “It was awesome. Awesome day for myself, for the team especially, and for my family”, the Islanders netminder said.

For Bortuzzo specifically, assisting on the overtime goal was big for him after putting his team down shorthanded which eventually led to the Hurricanes tying goal. There have been so many different momentum swings in this series, but the results haven’t been in favor of the Islanders.

“It’s cliche but you have to control what you can control”, Bortuzzo told Daily Faceoff. “We took the lows in stride — were there games where we thought we deserved a better result? Yeah, but that’s playoffs.”

The Islanders needed one win, and they got it. Now, they have some life as this series heads back to Carolina for Game 5.

“We’re happy with the win. Seeing the guys around the room with a smile — that’s contagious,” Isles center J.G. Pageau told the media in the postgame.

Time will tell if the Islanders can carrt that contagious energy into PNC Arena on Tuesday night.

_____

Hey, hockey heads! Get ready for The Daily Faceoff Playoff Parlay Challenge! Each game day, answer four playoff prediction questions like who will win the first game, will points be over or under or what will be the highest-scoring period? Daily winners snag gift cards, while each round’s champs pocket cash! Play now at games.dailyfaceoff.com and prove your puck prowess! It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s all about hockey! Let’s go!

Mathew Barzal’s churning legs rescue Islanders from brink in Game 4

Recently by Jonny Lazarus