If there was any chance of saving their season and avoiding being sellers at the trade deadline, the Islanders had to use this seven-game homestand to make some kind of statement.
And as the two weeks at home wrapped up against the Avalanche on Tuesday night, the Islanders added some punctuation to the narrative they’ve used this opportunity to craft: They’re not going anywhere.
The 5-2 win over the Avalanche, with the club’s blue line looking a lot different than two weeks ago with the additions of Scott Perunovich and Tony DeAngelo, made it five wins in a row for the Islanders and eight of 10.
After dropping the first two games of the homestand in disastrous fashion, the Islanders are heading on the road having found their game and delivered in a way that was missing all season.
There is still a long, long way to go, and a lot of teams to jump if the Islanders are going to make it a third straight season in which a second-half rally pushes them over the playoff cutline.
But the Islanders can move one spot up the standings on Thursday in Philadelphia, and making the playoffs has gone from looking like a pipe dream to a legitimate possibility.
They have found the physicality and defensive edge that was missing from their game all season.
The penalty kill is no longer a running joke.
Tenacity and resilience have returned.
This one, though, was about the goalie putting up a superhuman second period and the rest of the team responding in kind with a resurgent third.
A blue line without three of its six opening-night players looked a little overmatched for long stretches of this one, particularly the middle frame.
DeAngelo and Perunovich both had offensive flashes, but both are still adjusting to their new teammates.
Isaiah George, a rookie, has been a lineup regular since November, but is still subject to nights where the game looks a little too fast and a little too much.
That all coalesced on Tuesday into stretches where the Islanders spent a whole lot of time in their offensive zone and leaned a whole lot on Ilya Sorokin to keep it close.
All the same, that’s just what Sorokin did, stopping 11 shots in the second to get the Islanders into the third period tied at one with a chance to steal the game away.
The Islanders did not kick that particular gift horse in the mouth.
It was Simon Holmstrom — whose return from injury has quietly played a major factor into this winning streak — who broke the 1-1 deadlock, going bar down from the right circle and catching Mackenzie Blackwood unaware just 1:54 into the third, giving the Islanders the lead.
Josh Manson appeared to tie the game back up with a shot through traffic less than three minutes later, but a gutsy challenge from Patrick Roy for goaltender interference — a rule that seems to have varying interpretations depending on the night — paid off, as the referees found Jack Drury’s presence in the blue paint enough to wave off the goal.
And instead of playing against the clock, the Islanders stayed on the attack, extending their lead to 3-1 on Anders Lee’s cross-crease feed to Bo Horvat at 11:23 of the third.
Drury cut it to 3-2 with just over five minutes to go, taking advantage of a bad line change to get a one-on-zero look off Martin Necas’ feed.
Alexander Romanov, though — who hadn’t scored all season before Saturday — sealed the result with a seeing-eye shot from the left point before Holmstrom’s empty-netter made it 5-2.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead 4:11 into the second when Brock Nelson’s pass off the wall hit Anders Lee, who subsequently beat Mackenzie Blackwood with a backhand finish.
But that was perhaps the last scoring chance the Islanders had in the second, and it took frantic defense along with superb work from Sorokin to keep Colorado from taking a lead.
The only crack came at the 13-minute mark, after Scott Mayfield and George were forced to stay on following an icing call only for the Avs to take advantage, with Nate MacKinnon feeding Arturri Lehkonen at the crease to tie it.
This was not going to be a pretty two points.
But it was two points all the same.
