GAME STORY: Islanders 5, Devils 1

NASSAU, N.Y.- After the Devils bested New York, 2-1, Thursday, they expected to face a hungrier, more determined Islanders team Saturday night.
And that's exactly what they saw.
The Islanders stitched together a dominant performance, led by Brock Nelson's two goals, in a 5-1 victory against the Devils at Nassau Coliseum.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS
WATCH LIVE NOW
Watch the Devils Post-Game Show with Chris Wescott and Matt Loughlin for analysis, interviews, highlights and more!
POST-GAME VIDEOS
Full Game Highlights
Amanda Stein Wraps Up the Game with her Post-Game Report
Devils Player Interview:
Johnsson
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff gives his thoughts after the game
GAME STATS CENTRAL
Game Summary
Event Summary
Time on Ice - Devils
Time on Ice - Islanders
Full Game Play-by-Play
Shot Report
Face-Off Summary
Face-Off Comparison
NHL.com's Shift Chart
Roster Report, Scratches & Starting Lineups
MORE
View Photo Gallery
NHL.com's Game Center
Look back at the In-Game Blog
WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils finish off their season against the Philadelphia Flyers Monday night. You can watch on MSG and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 7:08 PM ET.
The game was tied at 1-1 nine minutes into the second period. That's when Nelson scored a pair of goals, 3:40 minutes apart, to give New York a 3-1 lead. The Islanders would blow it open with two more goals within a minute apart in the third period.
Even former Devil Kyle Palmieri got in on the action against some old teammates. He scored the fourth, and dagger, goal 3:32 into the third frame while crashing the net.
"We mismanaged the puck a lot of times, I think almost on every goal," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. "The puck was on our stick, we made a bad decision, we put the puck in the wrong place, fueled some of their transition. I thought it was more about our puck play than anything."
The Islanders received goals from Jordan Eberle, Nelson (2), Palmieri and Mathew Barzal. Goaltender Ilya Sorokin stopped 23 shots.
The Devils' lone goal scorer was Andreas Johnsson, who played his first game since April 25.
And then there was one. The Devils, who are 5-2-1 in their last eight games, wrap up the 2020-21 season Monday night in Philadelphia.
"I'm hoping we have more energy (Monday) than we did tonight," Ruff said. "I'm hoping the energy in some of our players is back up again, because when we have good energy, we usually play well."
Here are some other observations from the game…
* The story heading into Saturday's game was the return of Johnsson (lower-body, six games missed) and defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler (COVID-19, eight games).
Ruff had this to say about how hard they worked just to get into two games to finish the season: "We're putting them in the right spots to make a difference in the game. We're not just putting them in to play. We want them to be able to make a difference."
Johnsson's response: say less.
The Swede scored his fifth goal of the season after snapping off a shot from the low circle. He found some open space and took advantage of a blown coverage by Anthony Beauvillier. And then he made the most on his shot.
"He was the one guy I thought was close to being back up to speed," Ruff said. "I bumped him up with Jack (Hughes) and (Yegor) Sharangovich in the third period. I just thought he was skating well, was doing a nice job. You could see his energy level was a lot greater than some of the other players on our team."
It's been a challenging year for Johnsson. His numbers bely his talents. He showed a lot of guts and character to fight his way back into the lineup for a mere two games. Tonight's goal certainly shows his potential. Now, he needs to fulfill on that promise next season.
"I felt OK conditioning-wise," Johnsson said. "It's nice to score a goal, but it was an OK game."
* Mackenzie Blackwood, 24, has shown that he can be a legitimate No. 1 goaltender in this league and a franchise netminder. There are a lot of areas of his game to love, perhaps 95 percent of it. He's got great size at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds to take up a lot of the net. To match that size, he's surprisingly athletic and moves side-to-side with efficiency. Blackwood reads the play well, anticipates well, and because of that always seems to be in the proper position. And he has one of the best glove hands in the NHL, that leather just gobbles up pucks.
But if there is one area that Blackwood could work to improve upon it would be his rebound control. Sometimes he's overly aggressive on "attacking the puck" instead of "absorbing" it, and punches or kicks the puck out into space. The Islanders' second and third goals (both scored by Nelson) were the results of such rebounds. On the former, he kicked out a hard shot by Oliver Wahlstrom right to Nelson. The latter was a shot by Beauvillier that went off of his shoulder and bounced wildly into the slot before Nelson, again, scored.
He's still a young goalie at 24 years old. His upside is tremendous. If he gets his rebounds down, he could be an elite player.