Islanders need late surge to earn OT win over reeling Avalanche

The Islanders are skating with the big boys now, having entered the weekend in first place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of coach Barry Trotz’s former team, the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals, with one game in hand.

This was not the time and Barclays Center was not the place for a clunker against the reeling Avalanche, who came in tied for last place in the Central Division.

Well, a late wake-up call is better than no wake-up call as the Islanders scored four goals in the final 25 minutes to claim a 4-3 overtime victory in front of a matinee crowd of 14,216 on Captain America bobblehead giveaway day.

Ryan Pulock’s second goal of the game, a one-time shot off a pass from Casey Cizikas 2:23 into overtime, ended matters.

“When you’re up top in your division, you know you have to keep winning because there are teams behind you that are trying to catch us,” Pulock said. “We were down 2-0, but I didn’t think we were playing all that bad. We got that late goal in the second [from Jordan Eberle], which was really big, and we were able to continue to build momentum, get some more zone time and find a way to get it done.”

Pulock put the Islanders ahead for the first time with a 4-on-3 power-play goal with 6:03 to go in the third. Earlier in the period Matt Martin dove in front of a shot by Nathan MacKinnon that would have hit an empty net after goalie Robin Lehner skated into to the left faceoff circle to retrieve a puck. Josh Bailey tied the score at 2-2 less than two minutes later. But the Islanders were unable to protect the 3-2 lead Pulock had given them. The Avalanche tied it with 2:45 to go when J.T. Compher’s shot bounced off the right skate of defenseman Devon Toews and past Lehner.

The Islanders’ big challenge coming into the game was to try to shut down the Avalanche’s monster first line of Mikko Rantanen (third in the NHL in points with 75), MacKinnon (sixth with 73) and Gabriel Landeskog (27th with 56). By comparison, the Islanders’ leading scorer, Mathew Barzal, entered with 48 points.

Trotz answered that call largely by matching the Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Eberle line against Colorado’s big three, with Pulock and Adam Pelech seeing a lot of time against them on defense.

“That’s one of the better lines in the game, so it’s important when you’re matching up against them to be hard and keep them to the outside as much as possible,” Pulock said. “I thought [today] we did a pretty good job. We were physical when we needed to be and just tried to take their time and space away.”

Rantanen and Landeskog appeared on the scoresheet but only for penalties. Meanwhile, Eberle put the Islanders on the scoreboard with 1:47 to go in the second period when he made a steal in the offensive end and directed a rebound of a Lee shot past Semyon Varlamov. Nelson had two assists, including on the overtime winner.

“We don’t really have one line, two lines. The strength’s kind of within the group,” said Eberle, who added an assist on Pulock’s tying goal. “When all four lines are playing well and all ‘D’ pairings, we seem to have success. We have the inner competition of trying to help each other get better and move forward. Those are what good teams are all about.”