*Photo from Yahoo! News*
The New York Islanders are on quite a rampage. Saturday, in their first game without captain Anders Lee in quite a while, they continued that rampage. Kieffer Bellows scored two goals, Oliver Wahlstrom added another, and the Islanders topped the New Jersey Devils with a 3-2 win on Saturday night.
Pavel Zacha started the scoring for the Devils, giving them a 1-0 lead 6:37 into the first period. At 17:58 of the first, Wahlstrom tied it up for the Islanders with his 5th goal of the season. In the second period, Janne Kuokkanen scored for the Devils to give them a 2-1 lead after two periods. In the 3rd, Bellows scored the tying goal 1:59 into the 3rd, and the game winning goal 5:10 into the 3rd.
Bellows was given the first shot to skate with Matthew Barzal and Jordan Eberle in place of Lee, and Bellows took advantage. He said of playing with Barzal and Eberle that "I just wanted to go out there, work hard, grind down low, and be responsible. It was a good team effort there to get the win. That's the most important thing."
Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said of Bellows' game that "He's trying to make a statement. He sees an opportunity and sees it for one game, let's see if he can do it again. I was impressed with his positional play and the goals he scored. That line was really good tonight."
Semyon Varlamov was the starting goalie for the Islanders, and got the win. Varlamov saved 26 of 28 shots that came his way to earn the victory. Varlamov has a 12-4-3 record this season after the win, while the Islanders are atop the NHL's East Division with a 18-6-4 record, thanks to what is now an 8 game winning streak.
On the other side of things, Mackenzie Blackwood was the starting goalie for the Devils, being hit with the loss this time around. Blackwood saved 26 shots out of the 29 that came his way, with his major flaw being Bellows this time around. Blackwood now has a 5-7-1 this season, while the Devils have a 8-13-3 record, 7th in the East Division.
Devils coach Lindy Ruff said of the loss that "It's a common theme where offensively, we had some looks to make it 3-1. Power play again let us down. Effort wise, we put a good effort in. We had people back. Got caught a little on the last two goals and it hurt us. There's things you like about the game. Our defensive zone coverage was better. We didn't allow the shots we allowed on the Island."
The Islanders and Devils are facing off again right now, with Ilya Sorokin the starting goalie for the Islanders, and Scott Wedgewood starting for the Devils.
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