NHL

Anders Lee powers Islanders’ demolishing of Blue Jackets

As the second period ended on Thursday night, the UBS Arena crowd let out a cheer. Innocuous as that may be, those moments have been few and far between this year for an Islanders team that has so often failed to live up to standards. 

But on Thursday, in need of a get-right game after losing three of four, the Islanders got just that, recording a dominant 6-0 victory over the Blue Jackets, their biggest win of the season, on the back of Anders Lee’s first career hat trick, to move within two games of .500 (22-24-8). 

“One of those nights, pucks just kinda found me,” Lee said. “Great looks from some of the guys. Good night to start the weekend.” 

Even more encouraging, the Islanders played their kind of hockey, driving play on the forecheck, taking advantage of the opportunities that fell into their laps and avoiding the mistakes that have so often addled their play this season. 

Anders Lee notched a hat trick, a welcome sight for the struggling Islanders. Getty Images

“I thought we did a good job of limiting their skill,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “Especially [Patrik] Laine, we were on top of him.’ 

The Islanders want to play low-event games? That’s just what this was. They made it hard for their opposition, held the Blue Jackets to 31 shots and just 15 at five-on-five. Ilya Sorokin stopped all of them, turning in his sixth shutout of the year. With that being the dominant factor in the game, the Islanders’ offensive struggles didn’t matter so much — they didn’t need to score five goals to win. 

But they ended up with six. 

Most of the scoring came in a three-goal second period, in which Josh Bailey started off the festivities by snapping an 18-game goal-less streak, scoring off a one-legged feed from Kyle Palmieri at 6:08 to give the Isles a 2-0 lead. 

Lee was next up, converting a free look from the slot at 13:49 after some relentless forechecking by Anthony Beauvillier and a perfect drop-pass from Adam Pelech. Jean-Gabriel Pageau made it a 4-0 game with a four-on-three goal from an odd-man rush with Ryan Pulock. 

In between, the Islanders took four penalties in the period, and killed them all — on their way to a five-for-five night on the PK. Casey Cizikas took four of the penalties, but this was the kind of night when Trotz could joke about it afterwards. 

Ilya Sorokin stopped all 31 Blue Jackets’ shots he faced. Getty Images

As a reward, they got something even more rare this season than an ovation from the home crowd: a relatively stress-free third period. Lee’s second goal, off a rebound from Beauvillier, made it 5-0 at 11:57. His third goal, a power-play tally with 1.3 seconds left in the game, made for his hat trick. 

Brock Nelson opened the scoring for the Islanders at 10:32 of the first with a five-on-three tally off the rush, spinning past Zach Werenski before beating Joonas Korpisalo. Just before that, Sorokin came up with a huge stop on Boone Jenner after Noah Dobson’s misplay led to a Columbus breakaway. 

“That,” Trotz would say later, “is the game.” 

The Islanders celebrate after Anders Lee’s third goal of the night. Getty Images

In a plodding first period when neither team reached the double-digit shot mark, there wasn’t much more action. Just the way the Islanders like it. 

Fifth place in the Metropolitan — to be fair, the most meaningless of distinctions — is now within their sights, as the Islanders are down just seven points to the Blue Jackets with four games in hand (and two more contests against Columbus this month). 

That is a silver lining to end all silver linings, one that speaks poorly of what this Islanders season has been reduced to. 

On Thursday, though, the Islanders were content to get back to their game, even if only for a night. 

“Finish this thing as strong as we can,” Lee said. “We’ve been through a lot and it’s made us stronger in a lot of aspects. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and we’re gonna take all that and use it to our advantage and do the best we can to make the most of it.”