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TAMPA, Fla. — Another Islanders defenseman got hurt. Another (different) Islanders defenseman had a strong debut. And the Islanders won a seventh straight game to move within three points of a playoff spot.
Ho-hum, right?
The Islanders are the walking wounded, with Scott Mayfield and Mat Barzal joining the injured list Saturday night.
The Islanders are the hottest team in the league, having won seven in a row after Tony DeAngelo’s overtime winner sealed a 3-2 victory over the Lightning for their first win at Amalie Arena since December 2019.
Somehow, some way, those two facts are coexisting.
“We can’t catch a break right now, obviously, with injuries and stuff,” Bo Horvat said after his outlet pass sprung DeAngelo for the game-winner 32 seconds into the extra period.
“We’ve got great vibes right now, as you guys can imagine,” DeAngelo said.
Yeah, it’s a little strange in Islanders-land at the moment.
“First of all, never been a part of a team that had so many injuries, and not just minor ones,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Guys missing for a long period of time since the start of the year, it’s incredible. But the group’s resilient and the group doesn’t look for excuses.”
Since the beginning of this winning streak, all three of Mayfield, Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock have now gotten hurt — with Isaiah George, a lefty, also being sent down on Friday. Even before Mayfield’s injury, the Islanders defense on Saturday included DeAngelo, Adam Boqvist and Scott Perunovich, none of whom were with the club seven days prior.
So, naturally, it was Boqvist — in his first game with the club — who got the Islanders onto the scoreboard, following Barzal’s breakaway shot by banging in a rebound to tie the game at one with just under two minutes to go in the second period.
They came up empty on their first power play of the night early in the third, but converted mere seconds after the game returned to even strength, with Kyle Palmieri’s one-timer taking the Islanders into a 2-1 lead off Max Tsyplakov’s feed from behind the net.
That goal 6:41 into the third did not spell the end of the Lightning.
Tampa Bay applied consistent pressure to the Islanders net throughout the third, at one point being robbed of a Nikita Kucherov goal by the stretched-out ankle of Alexander Romanov, who put in another starring performance with his team down to five defensemen in the third.
It was the second time the Islanders saved what looked like a sure goal by blocking a shot, the first coming on the penalty kill late in the second when J-G Pageau got in front of Taylor Raddysh’s look at an open net.
“Even at the end, I know they put one in, but guys are in lanes,” Anders Lee told The Post. “Barzy blocks one. Guys were solid defensively. You gotta play with some really good sticks and structure with [Nikita] Kucherov handling that puck right there. I thought we really did a great job with him tonight.”
Barzal did get hurt on that block, slowly getting up before receiving attention from a trainer shortly before Kucherov finally put one in with 47 seconds to go in regulation to tie the game at two.
The Islanders, who might have used that as an opportunity to melt down earlier in the season, were unaffected, with DeAngelo quickly netting the winner in overtime.
“Everybody was screaming behind me, so I took a quick look up, fired it as hard as I could,” Horvat said. “Tony did the rest.”
“I don’t know if he could hear me calling,” DeAngelo said. “I don’t know if I’m that loud, Jesus. But he turned around and … made eye contact.”
The standings impact was blunted by Tampa getting the loser point, but the Islanders trail the Lightning and Bruins — who are tied on 58 points, with Tampa ahead in the standings with fewer games played — by just three points.
Three weeks ago, they were dead in the water. Now, the Islanders are within arm’s length of a playoff spot.
It is as bizarre as any winning streak in the history of the sport. But that matters little with the season on the line.
“To be successful, good teams find ways to win no matter who is in the lineup,” Horvat said.
Rarely has that been more true.
