WASHINGTON — With each passing game, the playoffs are looking more and more like an inevitability for the Islanders.
After Kyle Palmieri’s shootout goal propelled the Isles to a 2-1 win over the Capitals on Wednesday, the Isles have two more points on the board, just seven games left and a six-point lead to work with.
That is a math problem that is becoming just about impossible for the Panthers — the first team below the cutline — to solve, even with their win over Toronto on Wednesday.
And the Isles look to have the upper hand over the Penguins as well, with Pittsburgh needing to make up five points with two games in hand to catch them for the first wild-card spot
Two months ago, with the Islanders reeling going into the All-Star break, this scenario would have been implausible. Now it is reality. All that remains is to make it official by clinching.
“Guys know what the standings are, but I know our team and I know what our focus is and our focus is now, Tampa,” coach Lane Lambert said of his team’s next opponent Saturday, sticking to the company line. “And so we just have to take care of each game individually and see where it goes from there.”
It took the Islanders until the third period of this match to start putting together an offensive rhythm, but a hardened structure throughout blunted the cost of a quiet first 40 minutes.
The Isles couldn’t end the game in regulation, but managed to win in a shootout for the first time this year. Ilya Sorokin came up with more than one huge stop in OT, including on Alexander Ovechkin at the doorstep and on a two-on-one with Tom Wilson failing to score.
He then put an exclamation mark on a 25-save performance by stoning T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom during the shootout
“I should always be ready,” Sorokin said. “It’s part of the game.”
Finally winning in a shootout — a format in which the Isles have been miserable this season — adds some catharsis to the win as well, with their two shootout goals on Wednesday, courtesy of Bo Horvat and Palmieri, being one more than they’d had all season beforehand.
“It definitely felt good to go in,” said Horvat, who had been riding a scoreless drought until Monday. “I had a couple looks there in overtime that I wish would’ve went in, but I ended up getting back there in the shootout.”
After a first period in which the Islanders got off just three shots on net, Pierre Engvall got them on the board with a wrister that bounced off Darcy Kuemper’s chest pad and in 3:52 into the second.
Conor Sheary tied the game in short order with a backhander at 6:22 of the period, but the good news, for anyone tempted to lay down in a row of Capital One Arena seats and nap after the first 20 minutes, was that the action picked up a little bit.
Even so, this one was a slog.
Unlike Monday’s win over the Devils, this game just didn’t carry much tension or energy — the Caps are about as close to being eliminated as the Isles are to getting into the playoffs, which does not make for much suspense.
“I thought that the game was tight all the way,” Lambert said. “There wasn’t many chances either way, and then we started to, I guess, get in a little bit more on them and maybe make them uncomfortable.”
That would be a generous interpretation.
A more accurate interpretation would be that not much happened.
Of course, all that matters for the Islanders is that they got on the plane with two points.
“I just think that we’ve gotten better,” Adam Pelech said. “The structure in the D-zone has gotten better, we’ve been quicker to close and we’ve had a lot of dedication from guys blocking shots. Always the biggest thing is big saves from our goalies.”
The pressure is now off the Islanders going into what will be a tough back-to-back in Tampa and Carolina on Saturday and Sunday.
Over a three-game road trip, this was the one they needed to get. Another win would be a bonus, two more would be manna from heaven.
After this, though, clinching feels very much like a matter of when, not if.
And the Isles are one step closer.
