Postgame: Pageau and Czarnik
Postgame: Bellows and Lee
"It's incredible to think what we've gone through in this last month," Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "I've never gone through it, these guys have never gone through it. The way they stuck together and battled, they did it. They finally got rewarded."
After a scoreless and sleepy first period where the Islanders were outshot 9-3 by the Senators, they came out with a dominant, determined and effective second period and maintained that effort throughout the final 40 minutes. The Islanders not only showed confidence in their offensive game but ushered quick responses to diminish any counter momentum the Senators generated.
"The second period we came out with better juice," Trotz said. "We jumped on them, we started creating some loose pucks. We scored a goal and then we followed it up with a goal right away. If you think about this whole [winless] stretch that we had, we'd score a goal, get some life on the bench and before they'd announcer could get the goal scorer's name out, we would give up a goal on the next shift. [Tonight] we followed it up and scored. The momentum was good."