Islanders topple Avalanche to pick up best win of season

Brock Nelson got his standing ovation.

The Islanders got their two points.

Maybe that wasn’t how Nelson envisioned his return to UBS Arena going, and who could blame him given that the Avalanche had lost just once in regulation all year and once in their last 13 games.

But a night that started out being about Nelson’s first game back on Long Island became about the Islanders getting their best win of the season so far, beating a juggernaut Avalanche team, 6-3, to finish a rocky seven-game homestand out strong.

It was just over a couple weeks ago that the Islanders thought they played their best game of a seven-game road trip in Denver, only for it to be the only game they lost on that swing.

They will feel more than validated by what they saw on Thursday, when a lineup without Jonathan Drouin — scratched after taking warmups due to a lower-body injury and called day-to-day — not only hung around with the current Stanley Cup favorites, but never trailed.

Matthew Schaefer and Ryan Pulock, asked to take on the matchup against Nate MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen, hung tight, with the rookie continuing to prove he is up for any challenge.

Ilya Sorokin was terrific in making 35 saves, standing up to numerous barrages around the crease to continue a brilliant run of form.

Mat Barzal, who has disappeared across portions of the last couple weeks including Tuesday’s win against Tampa, had his best game of the season bar none.

No. 13 was incisive, engaged and creative as ever. 

He pulled up and delivered a cross-ice feed for Anders Lee’s one-timer that made it 2-0 at the 18:20 mark of the first, then with the Islanders needing to claw back some momentum late in the second, he skated past two defenders and finished on his backhand to make it a 5-2 game.

That did not, as the Islanders hoped, portend an easy finish.