National Hockey League
Preview
NY Islanders at Ottawa
When: 5:00 PM ET, Sunday, December 8, 2024
Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, Ontario

The New York Islanders finally held on to a third-period lead on Saturday.

They won't have to wait long to try to accomplish an even more rare feat.

The Islanders will look to win consecutive games for just the second time this season on Sunday when they visit the Ottawa Senators in a battle of Eastern Conference rivals.

Both teams will be completing back-to-back sets after winning at home Saturday, when the Islanders rode a four-goal second period to a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes and the Senators beat the Nashville Predators 3-1.

The win was just the fourth in the past 14 games (4-5-5) for the Islanders, who responded to a 5-2 loss on Thursday to the Seattle Kraken with a complete effort against the Hurricanes. Carolina eliminated New York in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs each of the past two seasons.

Bo Horvat's first goal since Nov. 7 and sixth of the season capped the four-goal second period for the Islanders. New York was outshot 19-2 in the third but blanked Carolina until Jesperi Kotkaniemi's extra-attacker goal in the final minute.

New York blew a third-period lead in six of its past 10 losses and seven times in 18 defeats overall this season.

"We had to bounce back," Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said. "(Thursday night) was probably our worst game of the year. That's a good team (Carolina). That's a good win for us."

The Islanders haven't won two straight since Nov. 5-7, when they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in a shootout before defeating the Senators 4-2. Despite the inconsistency, New York is two points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

"We've got to play the same way," Pulock said. "This is a win you can build off."

Ottawa has strung together some building-block wins following a five-game losing streak (0-4-1) from Nov. 14-23. The Senators have won four of their past six (4-1-1), a span in which they've gone 3-1 in one-goal games. They were 3-4 in one-goal games over the first 20 games of the season.

"The record speaks for itself a little bit," Senators coach Travis Green said. "We've played some good hockey as of late. We're still grinding, We're finding our game again."

The Senators never trailed Saturday, when defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker snapped a scoreless tie 5:07 into the second and goalie Linus Ullmark carried a shutout deep into the third before finishing with 37 saves.

The Senators have won back-to-back games twice within the past six contests after posting a pair of two-game winning streaks through Nov. 23.

"I think we feel that things are kind of starting to come together," Bernard-Docker said after scoring his first goal since Jan. 9. "And we're starting to build on games which, early in the season, wasn't really happening. It kind of felt like we'd win one, lose one, win one, lose one. So it's nice to have a little momentum."

--Field Level Media

Stats and Records
Team Comparison
  W/L Strk Home Away Day Night Div
NY Islanders 10-11-6-1 W1 5-6-2-0 5-5-4-1 1-2-1-0 9-9-5-1 3-2-2-0
Ottawa 12-12-1-1 W2 8-5-1-0 4-7-0-1 2-2-0-1 10-10-1-0 5-2-0-0
Last Meeting
NY Islanders Ottawa
Date Away Home Shots Saves PP Shots Saves PP
11/7/24 NYI 4 OTT 2 25 28 0-2 30 21 1-3
Player Stats
Previous Matchup
Total Points Player  
NY Islanders B. Horvat 3
Ottawa T. Stutzle 2
Goals Player  
NY Islanders B. Horvat 1
Ottawa D. Batherson 1
Assists Player  
NY Islanders B. Horvat 2
Ottawa T. Stutzle 2
Saves Player  
NY Islanders S. Varlamov 28
Ottawa A. Forsberg 21
Season
Total Points Player  
NY Islanders B. Horvat 25
Ottawa T. Stutzle 33
Goals Player  
NY Islanders A. Lee 13
Ottawa A. Gaudette 16
Assists Player  
NY Islanders B. Horvat 15
Ottawa T. Stutzle 22
Saves Player  
NY Islanders I. Sorokin 472
Ottawa L. Ullmark 478
Quickchart Matchup
NY Islanders Off vs  Ottawa Def
2.54 GF
3.12 GA
29 Shots
27.8 Shots
9 PP
18 PK
Ottawa Off vs  NY Islanders Def
3.08 GF
3 GA
30.9 Shots
28.6 Shots
23 PP
21 PK