You did not need to look hard for evidence of how important this game was for either team.
The Islanders and Canadiens alike treated this Thursday-night tilt as a playoff game, putting together a hard, physical 60 minutes over which space was limited and both teams needed to work hard for their chances.
It was a whole world removed from 11 days prior in Anaheim, when the Islanders looked disinterested and done-for just a few days removed from the Brock Nelson trade which tossed a grenade into their collective psyche.
The flashbang has since dissipated, and there was not one iota of negative about the mentality the Islanders brought to their biggest game of the season on Thursday.
Ditto for the result, as the Islanders overcame a Canadiens team whose speed threatened to overwhelm them at times 4-3 in overtime via Bo Horvat’s game-winner and a suddenly resurgent power play, which broke an 0-for-18 stretch to score twice.
As a result, the Isles are right on the heels of a playoff spot, two points back with 14 games left for themselves and the Habs alike.
There are plenty of others in it, and outsize importance attached to the two remaining matches against Columbus and the last Battle of New York.
But in the first game this year with a “most important” label attached, the Islanders measured up.
This, however, was not going to be easy — even after the Islanders took a 3-1 lead early in the third when Bo Horvat slid the puck through Sam Montembeault’s five-hole off the rush.
The Habs pulled back within 3-2 just a couple minutes later on Patrik Laine’s power-play goal.
After Patrick Roy lost a challenge for goaltender interference — having successfully challenged Nick Suzuki’s goal earlier in the game for offside, the Canadiens went right back on the power play.
That one, the Islanders killed, and luck was on their side when Alex Newhook’s shot later in the period ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar and out.
But there was no such luck at the 14:16 mark, when Brendan Gallagher capitalized on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s turnover at the blue line to tie the game at three off the rush, with Mike Reilly blowing a tire in pursuit.
Horvat, though, gave the Islanders redemption in overtime, finishing a two-on-one rush with 1:23 to go in the extra period.
The Islanders played hard, physical hockey all night long, getting below the hash marks at nearly every opportunity.
That was enough to keep them right in it, though the quick, highly-skilled Canadiens controlled play for long stretches at five-on-five, dominating the shot count as the Islanders struggled to answer for the top line of Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
Nobody had circled the Islanders’ 32nd-ranked power play, which has looked every bit its statistical profile lately, as a potential difference-maker in this one.
But there Anthony Duclair was 5:37 into the game to snap in Anders Lee’s feed to the front of the net after No. 27 bodied Alexandre Carrier off the puck for a 1-0 lead.
And there Simon Holmstrom was at 18:40 of the second, after the Islanders had spent nearly the entire period hemmed into their own zone, ripping the sort of one-timer that looked like nothing this club has seen in a long time to break a one-all draw.
So, unlike their last two games, the Islanders had a lead to take into the third period, and that is where this team has ever-so-quietly thrived.
This time, they did not exactly lock down the lead — even after extending it. But they did enough, just enough, to eke out two crucial points.
The Islanders were not the faster team on Thursday.
They were not the more skilled team and they did not control play.
But they had all the intangibles — the grit, the experience, the emotion.
This playoff chase is suddenly real.
And the Islanders suddenly look awfully well-positioned.
