On Tuesday night, the New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks each helped bolster the other’s surprising early-season surge.
On Thursday night, the two teams will try to cool each other off when the Islanders face the Ducks in their first matchup of the season in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams earned shootout wins Tuesday night: New York edged the visiting Vegas Golden Knights 5-4, and Anaheim beat the host Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3.
The Islanders and Ducks have each won four of their last five games, continuing to establish themselves as playoff contenders. New York ranks third in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of the fourth-place Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, who hold the wild card spots. Pacific Division-leading Anaheim is two points ahead of the second-place Golden Knights.
The strong starts follow disappointing seasons in which both teams underwent at least partial regime changes.
The Islanders finished nine points out of the final Eastern Conference wild card spot before hiring Mathieu Darche to replace Lou Lamoriello as general manager. Darche retained Patrick Roy as head coach and retooled the club in late June and early July, selecting Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the draft, acquiring Emil Heineman from the Montreal Canadiens and signing Jonathan Drouin as a free agent.
Schaefer ranks third on the Islanders in scoring, while Heineman is tied for fifth and collected the only goal in the shootout Tuesday. Drouin has 15 points, tied for seventh on the club, though he has missed the last four games with a lower-body injury.
Each of the Islanders’ last four wins has come against perennial contenders. New York never trailed while recording three victories over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Colorado Avalanche in a five-day span that ended last Saturday before overcoming a 2-0 first-period deficit Tuesday.
“I feel like it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re confident,” Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “Structurally we’ve been doing a real good job of not giving up a whole lot of good chances, which you’ve got to do against these high-skilled teams.”
The Ducks, who missed the playoffs last year for the seventh straight season, have benefited from the additions of rookie right winger Beckett Sennecke and veteran left winger Chris Kreider, who rank fourth and fifth on the team in scoring, as well as new head coach Joel Quenneville.
Sennecke, who scored the game-tying goal with one-tenth of a second left in the third period, was Anaheim’s first-round pick in the 2024 draft and is the first NHL rookie this season to record 25 points. Kreider was acquired from the New York Rangers on June 12.
Leo Carlsson collected the only goal in the shootout Tuesday as the Ducks continued a pair of encouraging trends. Anaheim has trailed in 10 of its 19 wins and is 8-1 in games decided in overtime or the shootout.
“I’ve seen some crazy endings,” Quenneville said. “I’ve seen an overtime game in the playoffs comparable, but not as dramatic as in the dying second. You don’t know if it was in or not before the bell rung. But hey, we’re very fortunate to come out of there with two points.”
