Game Preview: Islanders vs. Capitals

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (19-6-4) AT WASHINGTON CAPITALS (18-6-4)
7PM | CAPITAL ONE ARENA
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The New York Islanders travel to Washington to take on the Capitals on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena in the final stop of their three-game road trip. Tuesday's clash will be the third meeting of the season against their East Division foes.

The Islanders and Capitals last met on Jan. 26 and Jan. 28 where the Caps handed the Islanders respective 3-2 and 6-3 defeats. The competition is still expected to be fierce between the East Division leading Islanders and the No. 2 ranked Capitals.
The Islanders enter the contest streaking as the hottest team in the NHL with a nine-game winning streak and a 12-game point streak (11-0-1). The Islanders earned their nifty ninth-straight win with a gutsy performance in Sunday's 3-2 shootout victory over New Jersey. Kieffer Bellows scored for the second-straight game, while Brock Nelson scored a buzzer beater at the end of the first period. Anthony Beauvillier and Oliver Wahlstrom scored in the third and fourth rounds of the shootout, while Ilya Sorokin was dominant with his 29-save performance.
The Capitals opened up their back-to-back set with a dominant 6-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. With the win, the team picked up its sixth-straight win.
Evgeny Kuzentsov, Nicklas Backstrom, Richard Panik, Daniel Sprong, Garnet Hathaway and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Caps. Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves on 23 shots.

ISLANDERS NOTES:

• With their ninth-straight win, it marks the second-consecutive season that the Islanders have won at least nine games straight and only the fourth time in franchise history they've accomplished the feat.
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• Bellows scored his third goal of the season and his third goal in the last two games. The rookie winger has three goals through 10 games this season.
• Nelson's goal - which he scored with one second left in the first period - was his 12th of the season and tied him with Anders Lee for the most among the Islanders. Nelson is heating up as the center now has points in six of his last seven games (6G, 1A) and has goals in five of the last six games with six goals in that stretch. Through 29 games, Nelson has accrued 17 points.
• Wahlstrom's shootout winner was the first of his career on the first shootout attempt of his rookie career. The 20-year-old winger has 10 points (5G, 5A) through 22 games this season.
• Sorokin sealed his sixth-straight win on Sunday night. The Russian rookie netminder made 29 saves and improved his record to 6-2-1.
• With an assist, Nick Leddy now has a team-best of 17 helpers through 29 games. The veteran blueliner is tied with Tampa's Mikhail Sergachev for the fifth most assists in the NHL by defensemen.
• Jean-Gabriel Pageau missed his first game of the season after the forward was put on the NHL's COVID-19 Protocol list at 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Pageau was taken off the COVID-19 Protocol list on Monday.
• Noah Dobson also missed his first game of the season after subsequently being put on the NHL's COVID-19 Protocol list moments before puck drop.
• Austin Czarnik took Pageau's place in the lineup and played 12:50 - including 1:12 on the power play and 24 seconds on the penalty kill - had one shot, one block and one hit.
• Sebastian Aho made his season debut and played in his first professional game in over a year and his first NHL game since 2018. The 25-year-old Swede logged 10:26 TOI and assisted on Bellows' game-opening goal early in the first period.
• Leo Komarov joined the lineup for the first time since March 9th in place of Michael Dal Colle. Komarov skated in his 14th game of the season on Sunday night and logged 10:35 and threw one hit.
• With Bellows' game-opening goal the Islanders are now 13-1-2 when scoring first and are 6-5-2 when allowing the opening goal.

CAPITALS NOTES:

• With the win, Vaneck improved his record to 11-5-3 and earned his first NHL shutout.
• Both Backstrom and Ovechkin scored their team-leading 11th goals of the season. Backstrom also leads the Caps in scoring with 31 points (11G, 20A) through 28 games. Backstrom has points in five of his last six games.
• With his 11th goal of the season and 717th career goal, Ovechkin is now tied with Phil Esposito for the sixth-all time in goals in the NHL. Ovechkin has goals in back-to-back games and three goals in his last four games.
• Panik and Kuznetsov each scored their third goal of the season in the win. Kuznetsov is riding a four game point streak with five points (1G, 4A) during that span.
• Hathaway's goal was his fourth of the season and extended his point streak to three games where the winger has totaled four points (1G, 3A) in that stretch.
• The Caps played with 11 forwards and opted to dress seven defensemen against Buffalo as Lars Eller missed the game with an injury. Trevor Van Riemsdyk drew in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 7. The blueliner logged 7:00 and had one shot on goal in his eighth game of the season.
• The Capitals average the third most goals for in the NHL with a 3.50 average.
• While John Carlson didn't score a point against the Sabres, the veteran defenseman still is tied for the third most points in the NHL with Edmonton's Tyson Barrie with his 24 points (6G, 18A).