3 Takeaways: Islanders Pick Up First Win at UBS Arena

There was a lot to cheer about at UBS Arena on Saturday night.
The New York Islanders finally christened their new arena with a win, skating to a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Noah Dobson, JG Pageau and a pair of former Devils - Andy Greene and Zach Parise - scored for the Islanders, while Mathew Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom recorded a pair of assists. Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes scored for the Devils. Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots in the win, while Akira Schmid stopped 25 of 29 in his NHL debut.

The win marked the Islanders first in their new home and more importantly, gave the team points in five of their past six games (2-1-3). Two regulation points were key in the divisional matchup and also helped lessen some of the sour taste from Thursday's last-second regulation defeat.

Saturday also saw the return of a pair of key veterans, as both Brock Nelson and Casey Cizikas returned to the lineup after lengthy absences.
"I'll give the fans the credit for the win," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "They stuck with us through the whole game. They stuck with us through the last six or seven games. I was sitting in the office here and you could hear the thunder of the fans in the locker room, in the coaches' room, that's fantastic. That's why the Islanders fans are special. They're passionate. They're loud. We're going to dig ourselves out of this and try to make some noise. We won a game here, but we're going to need them. They were a big part of it and I want to thank them for sure."
Cue the Maxine Nightingale. See below for three takeaways.

PARISE POTS FIRST AS ISLANDER:

Zach Parise's celebration said it all.
The 37-year-old winger jumped into the arms of Pageau after scoring his first goal of the season and couldn't get through the high-five line at the Islanders bench with any momentum, not with everyone stopping him for an extra head tap or handshake along the way.
It was a sense of relief, as much as it was joy for Parise, who had been snakebit through the first 22 games of the Islanders season before finally finding the back of the net.
"You could just see it in his face after," Greene said during an intermission interview with Islanders radio. "He's a guy who puts a lot of pressure on himself, he works extremely hard. He's had a lot of chances and they haven't gone in for whatever reason. It was great to see that one go in and hopefully that gets him going here now."
(Greene also ended a lengthy drought, as the defenseman scored for the first time in 33 games, beating Schmid with a long-range wrister stick side.)

Parise's goal put the Islanders ahead at the end of the second period, converting on a shorthanded breakaway at 16:33. It was very similar to a near shorthanded miss in Ottawa on Tuesday night, but with 393 goals on his resume entering Saturday, Parise just went back to the well.
"I had my mind made up right when I got the puck on where I was going to go," Parise said. "Everyone wants to contribute and we've been working hard to try and win games. From an individual standpoint when you're not producing and you're losing by that one goal, that one shot, it starts to get a little frustrating, but as a group we really picked each other up and have been supportive of each other."
On Saturday Pageau sprung Parise with a spin-o-rama pass in the neutral zone and the winger slid a puck underneath Schmid. Parise nearly had a second in the dying minutes on Saturday, but his shot at an empty net was high and wide.
Parise's first goal as an Islander would have meant a lot no matter the situation, but there was a little extra poetry in doing so on his late father's, former Islander JP Parise, birthday. The elder JP would have been 80 today.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him and what he did for me as a person and as a player," Parise said of his father. "I had a good feeling coming to the rink today, for whatever reason, knowing it was his birthday. Had a good feeling all day, so for me it was pretty emotional when that puck went in and of course my mind goes right to him."

POWER PLAY/PK POWER WIN:

The Islanders decisively won the special teams battle on Saturday, netting both a power-play and shorthanded goal.
The power play went 1-for-2 on Saturday night and came through in quick fashion on as Dobson scored six seconds into a Tomas Tatar cross-checking penalty. After Anders Lee won a faceoff on the winger's strong side, Barzal worked the puck to open ice where Dobson put a slapper on net. The shot caromed off Damon Severson's stick and past Akira Schmid to make it 1-1.
The Islanders power play now has five goals in the past five games, going 5-for-13 over that stretch. That comes in the wake of a 1-for-29 stretch for the Isles' man advantage.

"Our power play has been really good lately," Parise said. "Our PK has done a really good job all year. You need those contributions from the power play."
The penalty kill also came through in a big way for the Islanders, going 3-for-3 with the team's second shorthanded goal in the past week (more on that below). While the shorthanded unit provided some offense, it came up with a key kill with Parise in the box for putting the puck over the glass in a 2-2 contest.
Sorokin stopped all four Devils shots on the power play, though his best save came on an Andreas Johnsson even-strength breakaway in the second period.

BARZAL, DOBSON, PAGEAU AND WAHLSTROM STAY HOT:

After a team-wide offensive drought to end November, there are plenty of Islanders with hot sticks in December.
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Barzal picked up a pair of assists on Saturday night, extending his personal point streak to six games with nine points (1G, 8A) over that span. The six-game streak is Barzal's longest since posting a nine-gamer from Jan. 26 to Feb. 15 last season.
"When you lose a couple late like we have recently at home, that confidence, that championship mentality that we had the last couple of years, it seemed like it wasn't there for a little bit and really thought tonight we got it back," Barzal said.
Dobson's power-play goal - a clapper from the point that caromed off Damon Severson's stick and past Schmid - was the defenseman's fourth point in the last five games (3G, 1A).
Oliver Wahlstrom dished out a pair of assists, giving the young winger six points (1G, 5A) in his last three games and eight points (3G, 5A) in his five games. Wahlstrom made a nifty play at the Devils blueline on the Islanders fourth goal, forcing Ty Smith to turn the puck over before feeding Pageau on a two-on-one rush for the 4-2 backbreaker.
"He's playing a straight-line game and he's using people," Trotz said of Wahlstrom. "He's got his head up, his awareness is getting better. Right now, we've got some people who are good players, who aren't playing. This is the back pressure that you have when you have an almost healthy or healthy lineup. Wahlstrom will have to continue producing and playing well as will some other guys. Hopefully, we can stay healthy."
In the process, Pageau also continued to pile up the points. With a goal and an assist, Pageau now has five points (3G, 2A) in his last five games - after recording five points in his first 18 games.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders head to Detroit to take on the Red Wings on Tuesday night. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.