RALEIGH, N.C. — The Islanders are riding high into the holidays.
After a get-right 5-4 win over the Hurricanes on Saturday to finish out their pre-Christmas schedule, the Islanders are sitting pretty as sole holders of second place in the Metropolitan Division.
They have lost just twice in regulation since Nov. 13. And after suffering three losses in four last week, they have suddenly strung together a three-game points streak that includes a win over the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last spring.
This has been a less than perfect season for the Islanders, whose record sits at 16-8-9.
But they will be right to feel pretty good about where they are.
The third-period issues that hamstrung the early goings of their season are largely gone.
The stars are all producing. The goaltending is as expected — and created the game-winning disparity Saturday, as Carolina simply does not have the ability of the Islanders in nets.
The ’Canes have been hampered by their goaltending all season, ranking 31st in the league in save percentage as a team entering play. It was no different against the Islanders as Pyotr Kochetkov stopped just 23 of 28 shots while Ilya Sorokin turned aside 36 of 40 for the Islanders.
Of course, they did not make it easy for themselves.
After the Islanders entered the third with a 4-2 lead, it took the Hurricanes under two minutes to cut it to 4-3, with Jaccob Slavin’s slap shot finding the back of the net at the 1:56 mark.
But unlike numerous occasions this year, the Islanders had a quick answer, as Anders Lee scored his 250th career goal less than two minutes later to bring the lead back to 5-3.
They weren’t out of the woods yet, though, as Stefan Noesen stuffed in his own rebound for a power play goal to make it 5-4 with 10:43 to go in the game.
Carolina appeared to tie it after a net-front scramble with 6:11 to go, but the goal was waved off on the ice and after review, it was confirmed that Martin Necas kicked the puck in.
That was as close as the Hurricanes would get, with the Islanders hanging on by a thread at five-on-six.
The first goal of the game started with a bit of luck, as Mike Reilly wasn’t called for a fairly brazen trip of Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov on a breakaway.
After the Isles recovered the puck, Sebastian Aho beat Kochetkov clean at the 11:19 mark of the first as the netminder failed to track the puck.
Teuvo Teravainen would tie the game just over a minute later, pushing in a rebound from Seth Jarvis. But the Islanders continued to take advantage of Kochetkov.
Brock Nelson beat the netminder with a wrist shot from the slot following a faceoff win at the 14:43 mark. Just under four minutes later, Bo Horvat did so on a one-timer from the right circle that bounced off Kochetkov’s right pad and into the net.
Sebastian Aho brought the Hurricanes back within a goal just 59 seconds into the second period with a power play goal.
But Reilly’s seeing-eye shot from the left point got the lead to 4-2 at the 14:12 mark of the second — another goal Kochetkov probably would have liked to have back.
Sorokin, meanwhile, was not all that troubled even by a Carolina team whose tendency to throw pucks at the net from everywhere was in full force.
Whatever you make of these first 33 games for the Islanders — and it is far from an unequivocal success given they have lost more times than they’ve won, factoring in overtime losses — it is clear they’ve gotten better as the season has gone on.
In a Metropolitan Division that, aside from the Rangers, has been mediocre-at-best, that equates to the Islanders being well-positioned as things stand.
Three days of holiday cheer, then, are far from unwarranted.