GAME STORY: Devils 2, Islanders 1

NASSAU, N.Y.- The progression continues for the New Jersey Devils.
For the second consecutive game, the Devils got the better of an East Division playoff-bound squad. After a 4-3 overtime victory against Boston Tuesday, the Devils got the better of the New York Islanders, 2-1, Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum.
The Devils, who scored the first goal of the game for the sixth time in the past seven games,improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games. The team has come a long way from earlier in they struggled to score early in games or build on leads.

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WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils finish off their season series against the Islanders Saturday night. You can watch on MSG+ 2 and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 7:08 PM ET.
\"Early in the year we could score, the games were tight, they were low scoring, and we couldn't really finish off a team," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had opportunities to break a tie or increase a lead, and in the end we didn't do it. A lot of those things came back to bite us."
The Devils scored the game's opening goal on the career-high 16th tally of the season for forward Pavel Zacha, who scored two goals the previous game against Boston, including the overtime winner.
The Islanders would tie the game on a fluky play when Scott Mayfield's shot deflected off of Anthony Beauvillier and into the net early in the second period.
New Jersey reclaimed the lead on Michael McLeod's ninth of the season late in the second frame. That goal would stand up as the winner as goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood stopped the remaining shots against, 32 in total in the game, and earned a new career-best five game winning-streak.
"We're playing some good hockey as of late and beating some pretty good teams that could go pretty far in the playoffs," McLeod said. "That's huge for us heading into the offseason getting that confidence as a team that we can beat these teams, and if we play the right way we can get the results that we want."
Here are some other observations from the game…
* Talk about leadership. With 28.4 seconds left in regulation, captain Nico Hischier laid out his body to block a hard shot from Ryan Pulock. The Devils aren't making the playoffs. It's a "meaningless" game in the standings. But Hischier led by example and showed a lot of guts. He's still willing to risk it all, and all in the name of a win.
"That says everything about how Nico wants to represent our time and how Nico wants to play," Ruff said. "Gutsy block. I could see at this time of year on a situation like that you may not want to go down. I think he's a message to the whole team. 'I'm going to be a leader from Game 1 through the end of the year.' When he blocked that shot everybody was up on the bench."
* Hischier got it done at both ends of the rink. Zacha's game-opening goal was the result of a smart play by the captain. The play started with Zacha, who wore an 'A' as an alternate captain, keeping the offensive zone at the blue line. Damon Severson rimmed the puck around to the opposite corner. Hischier immediately reads where the puck is going to be, gets inside position on New York's Mayfield and then wins the race to the puck. Hischier then uses his body to shield Mayfield before dishing to Jesper Bratt, who dishes to the low circle for Zacha, who dishes into the net.
Much credit to Zacha on the goal as well. He kept the zone. He smartly floated into some open space (getting lost in coverage). Then the real key was Zacha shooting without hesitation. If he takes a even half of a second to shoot, goaltender Seymon Varlamov makes the save. But the puck is nearly through Varlamov's legs before he even started his descent to the butterfly.
* Severson made an outrageous feed to McLeod for his goal to put the Devils ahead 2-1 in the second period. But it was also a smart read by Severson that led to the goal. He passed the puck to Jesper Boqvist and then pinched deep into the zone as Boqvist floated into his vacated blue line position. The Devils worked the puck low, and then Severson made the ridiculous pass for McLeod's finish.
(By the way, Severson's pass went through the feet of Mayfield, who was beat to the puck by Hischier on New Jersey's first goal.)
* Rookie Kevin Bahl has been given a large role on the team's penalty kill since his call up. He's been a part of the unit since making his NHL debut five games prior. But in the past two games, the coaching staff really has given him a lot of minutes.
* The storyline heading into the game was the Devils facing their former teammates Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri. Though it was certainly an odd experience for many of the Devils players to see them in blue and orange, both players weren't much of a factor in the contest.
Palmieri did tried to sneak a puck at the post in the first period. Palmieri was trying to catching Blackwood leaning off the pipe, but the tender fought off the puck.