No NHL team is playing better right now than the surging New York Islanders, who will hunt for their seventh straight win when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
New York owns the league’s longest active winning streak and has soared up the Eastern Conference standings after finishing January 9-3-0. The Islanders entered Friday three places and four points behind Columbus for the final wild-card spot.
They have passed Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Montreal and the New York Rangers during their climb from the lower rungs of the East standings.
On Thursday night in Philadelphia, New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin authored his third shutout with 23 saves and helped his club earn two more points in a 3-0 victory.
Kyle Palmieri scored the Islanders’ third goal with roughly 10 minutes remaining to secure the win. It was the second-line right winger’s first goal in 15 games dating back to a 7-1 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 23.
New York also enjoyed a goal from newcomer Marc Gatcomb, who found the net for the first time on Thursday in his seventh NHL game.
“We’ve got a good thing going in the room right now,” Palmieri said during Thursday’s broadcast. “Guys are believing (in) each other, and we’ll try to keep this thing going. We’ve done the uphill climb the last two years.”
The Islanders will complete their back-to-back set against the Florida Panthers on Sunday in Sunrise, Fla.
The Lightning, meanwhile blanked the visiting Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Thursday to snap a two-game skid and win for just the second time in their last six games (2-4-0).
Thursday’s victory was especially crucial given what lies ahead for Tampa Bay. After Saturday, the Lightning will host a two-game set against the Ottawa Senators, who recently overtook Tampa Bay for third place in the Atlantic Division.
The win also salvaged the second subpar month this season for coach Jon Cooper’s team. The Lightning went 5-6-2 in November and closed January 7-8-1.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy notched his third shutout this season and the 37th of his career on Thursday. Keeping the puck out of the defensive end was key for protecting the star backstop, who was questionable to play due to an illness.
“The worry was that he hadn’t skated in four days,” Cooper said. “Just wanted to make sure we weren’t stuck in our end all night. … The lesson is you can still defend your way to winning.
“I think I’ve given the same press conference for the last couple weeks: I like the way we’re playing.”
The Lightning called up netminder Matt Tomkins on Friday to replace ailing backup Jonas Johansson (lower body), who is 6-5-1 with a 3.24 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.
With his assist on Tampa Bay’s second goal Thursday, Nikita Kucherov reached 75 points for the season, third overall behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (78) and Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (76).
