Islanders win double overtime thriller in Game 4 to stay alive vs. Hurricanes

NHL

City Ethan Sears

To see how much the Islanders still believe in themselves, and to understand how much extending the season means to a group that has been through everything together, look no further than the mob scene that coalesced at the blue line at 5:40 pm Saturday.

The Islanders, every one of them, spilled off the bench and surrounded Robert Bortuzzo, whose shot from the blue line was tipped in by Mathew Barzal 1:24 into the second overtime period to keep the season alive with a 3-2 victory.

One giant group hug to propel them back to Raleigh, NC, for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

Only four other teams in NHL history have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, but this 81:24 ulcer-inducing marathon of a hockey game has the Islanders believing, even if nobody else does.

“You have no idea how proud I am of this group,” coach Patrick Roy said. He later added: “It never really crossed my mind that’d be the end of our season.”

“Great shot by Bobby, trying to find it at an area where there are some bodies,” Barzal said following a starring two-goal performance. “Lucky bounce.”

“It’s hard to explain, really,” Anders Lee said. “Season’s on the line. And we laid it all out there.”

Stefan Noesen tied the game for Carolina on a power-play goal with just under six minutes left in regulation to send the game to overtime and it felt like you could write the script of heartbreak from there. But the Islanders delivered their fans a core memory instead.

Both teams retreated into conservatism during a high-tension first extra period, playing dump-and-chase hockey with defensemen hanging back to avoid getting caught out.

Semyon Varlamov and Frederik Andersen both stood up to what pressure came, with Andersen turning aside Lee’s two-on-one chance and Kyle Palmieri’s wraparound attempt and Varlamov stopping Andrei Svechnikov’s deflection late in the period.

Finally, in double overtime, Barzal ended it.

“It was awesome,” Varlamov said after delivering 42 saves on his birthday. “Awesome day for myself, for the team and for my family.”

After feeling like they had been the better team in two of their three losses this series — and holding a 3-0 lead in the other game — the Islanders finally put everything together Saturday.

The spark came right as it looked like their season was about to slip away, with a lack of energy from both the team and the building palpable early in the game.

Barzal brought the building alive 10:10 into the second period with an individual effort to produce a goal and tie the game at 1-1 out of nowhere — cutting back along the right wall and ripping a shot from above the circle.

This had been a funeral procession for the first 30 minutes. Now it was a playoff game.

Now it was the Islanders fighting for their season.

“He’s one of those guys that can make a play in a phone booth,” Lee said of Barzal. “He sees it a lot. Sometimes just chucking that thing on the net is a good play.”

Suddenly, the Islanders were defending with desperation and energy and with the crowd behind them. After a series of calls went against them late in the second, the Islanders finally got one at the period’s expiration as Sebastian Aho tripped Alexander Romanov.

They took advantage in short order, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau jumping on Noah Dobson’s rebound 1:48 into the period for the Islanders’ first lead since Game 2, but handed it right back after Bortuzzo tripped Jaccob Slavin to set up Noesen’s tying goal.

The 35-year-old Bortuzzo, a former Cup winner with the Blues, redeemed himself with a blast from the blue line that caught Barzal’s stick.

“That line was flying all night, pushing their D back, so if you can support them, sometimes they over-backcheck,” Bortuzzo said. “That puck squirted out. Got some good wood on it. Obviously, got a lucky bounce.”

The big conversation around the Islanders’ future is on hold until at least Tuesday when Game 5 begins in Raleigh.

The Islanders are hoping against hope that they can keep delaying it until it dissipates into the wind.

That would require something historic.

Historic. But not impossible.