There has been but one consistent trend of an Islanders season that has flipped from bad to excellent over the span of the last four weeks:
The Islanders play close games. Against everybody.
More evidence on that front was piled on by the Islanders on Wednesday night as they beat the Ducks 4-3 on Simon Holmstrom’s shorthanded winner, making a dramatic victory out of one that should have been straightforward.
“The shorthanded king,” Mat Barzal dubbed Holmstrom following his fourth goal of the season on the penalty kill — and at that point, it really did not matter whether the Isles won this one fashionably or not.
Two points is two points, no matter how they come.
“I think like every game we’re either up one in the third or down one,” Barzal said. “It’s nice to have a game where you gotta find a way to crawl out of it. That’s what good teams do.”
They entered the third period tied at two — because that is what this team does.
Then they went down 3-2 at the 5:07 mark, with Sam Carrick capitalizing on Robert Bortuzzo’s turnover to finish off the rush and put Anaheim in the lead.
But the pressure around Anaheim’s net that the Islanders had for much of the night continued. And so too did the Islanders’ run of success on the power play, as Barzal’s left-circle one-timer on the man-advantage tied the game back at three with 12:14 to go.
It looked like the Ducks would get a chance to strike back with a power play of their own after Bortuzzo was called for tripping with 1:45 to go.
But Anaheim was almost immediately whistled for a delayed penalty, allowing the Islanders to promptly flip the script — as Holmstrom scored on the rush before the play was blown dead.
“First of all, you just don’t want to let in any goals [on the PK],” Holmstrom told The Post. “When you get the chance, it’s always nice to try to cash in. It’s been good.”
Scoring did force the Islanders to keep killing off what became a six-on-four power play after Anaheim pulled goaltender John Gibson.
But unlike two nights earlier when Toronto pulled Martin Jones, the Islanders survived the final, nervous seconds of the match, which included three saves from Semyon Varlamov in the final eight seconds.
“I think we’re just comfortable in those [one-goal] situations,” Noah Dobson told The Post after skating 26:51 and recording a pair of assists. “There’s no panic.”
This season-long six-game homestand started in exactly the wrong way with a blown lead and overtime loss against San Jose.
Since then, the Islanders have played nothing but good — particularly late in games. Wednesday, though, offered their most complete performance.
The Islanders owned possession of the puck. T
heir shot-suppression was excellent.
Really, the only negative thing you could say is that it had little business being a close game.
Constant pressure paid off for the Islanders just 40 seconds into the second period as Kyle Palmieri’s one-timer beat Gibson after Hudson Fasching forced an Anaheim turnover behind the net.
Casey Cizikas would double the lead at the 6:32 mark, playing catch with Cal Clutterbuck on the breakaway until he finished the play by scoring.
But the lead did not last long, as the Islanders continued their season-long habit of letting multi-goal cushions wear away.
Troy Terry pulled Anaheim back within one just over a minute after Cizikas’ goal, scoring on the power play with a shot that banked off Bortuzzo’s skate and pinballed between the legs of Varlamov.
Adam Henrique then scored on a broken play of his own, with Urho Vaakanainen’s shot off a broken stick falling to him alone in front, making for an easy goal.
Unlike earlier this season, though, the Islanders could take care of business in the third to make it four wins in a row and a 9-1-2 record since Nov. 18.
“We’ve had some leads that we’ve given up and we don’t feel like we’ve had bad structure,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ve felt like we haven’t gotten good bounces in those situations. The mindset and the mentality hasn’t wavered one bit.”
Now it is paying off.
