(Elmont) Brock Nelson scored twice as the New York Islanders edged the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Wednesday night at UBS Arena.
The victory allows the Islanders (42-31-9) to advance to the playoffs for the fourth time in five years and eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Nelson first scored his 35th goal of the season midway through the first period before adding the eventual game-winning net midway through the second period.
Hudson Fasching (10th), in the first period, and Anders Lee (28th), late in the third period, also beat Samuel Montembeault, who faced 35 shots. Defenseman Noah Dobson did his part with two assists for the Islanders, who finished their season with 93 points.
Rem Pitlick (6th), in the first period, and Nick Suzuki (25th), shorthanded in the second period, hit home for the Habs, who were limited to 19 shots.
The Canadiens (31-44-6) finish their season with a 14-24-3 road record, including losses in nine of their last 11 outings away from home. This long and painful campaign will end tomorrow evening at the Bell Center with the visit of the cream of the NHL in 2022-23, the Boston Bruins.
If they intended to spoil the party and spoil the evening for the Islanders and their supporters, the Canadiens players missed their goal at the start of the game.
It took almost 10 minutes for Martin St-Louis’ men to get a first shot on Ilya Sorokin, a span during which the Islanders tested Montembeault on five occasions. The Habs goalkeeper finally gave in on the home side’s sixth shot, at 10:26.
Once inside Montreal territory, Nelson slid to his left before unleashing a sharp wrist shot against the tide, which beat Montembeault on the mitten side, in the upper part.
The Canadian looked much better in the second half and ended up leveling the score with just over two minutes left in the first period.
Jake Evans stole the puck from Dobson in the opposing zone and while he could have fired a shot from the top of the slot, Evans instead chose to relay the puck to his right where Pitlick was. His sharp one-timer shot gave Sorokin no chance.
This tie didn’t last very long, 79 seconds to be precise.
A very lively pass from Joel Edmundson, coming from the bottom of the Canadian zone, ended up on the blade of the stick of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, posted along the ramp on the right flank.
Pageau shot to the front of the net and Zach Parisé deflected the disc over Montembeault’s shoulder and onto the horizontal bar.
Quicker to react than Suzuki, Fasching managed to get in front of the Canadiens’ goalie and push the puck from the backhand into the net.
Nelson added his second of the game midway through the second period by deflecting a shot off Dobson’s wrists.
Against all expectations, the Canadiens reduced the Islanders’ lead with just over three minutes left in the middle period, during a minor penalty to Brendan Gallagher.
Suzuki sped past defenseman Samuel Bolduc in a race for the puck and with a one-handed backhand dive, the Habs captain found a way to lift the puck into the top of the net to the left of Sorokin.
This goal, however, did not give the Canadian any momentum in the third period during which he collected only five shots.
The Islanders haven’t been all that much more dynamic in this final period, directing just seven shots. One of them eluded Montembeault’s vigilance, however, when Lee deflected a wrist shot from defender Sebastian Aho with four minutes left.
