SAINT PAUL, Minn. — It’s tough to top the win over the Avalanche last month, still just one of four times Colorado has lost in regulation, as the best by the Islanders this season.
Saturday, though, might have a case.
The Wild, whose already terrific lineup got an infusion of Quinn Hughes to vault them to Stanley Cup contender status, are one of few teams whose speed can make the 2025-26 Islanders look like the 2024-25 Islanders.
Still, the Isles hung on tight and found their way to a gutsy, brilliantly entertaining 4-3 victory over Minnesota at Grand Casino Arena on Saturday night on Simon Holmstrom’s overtime winner.
There were moments during the game, particularly when Hughes was on with Kirill Kaprizov, where the Wild looked ready to sweep away the Isles, or any other comer, for that matter. Even with the two points in hand, there’s plenty of learning for the Islanders to do from this one.
The biggest lesson, though, is one about their own ability to stay in a game, and to find a way to win it.
The Islanders went down 3-2 midway through the second period on a Hughes to Dryden Hunt to Kaprizov blur, and their struggling power play coughed up an opportunity shortly thereafter.
The Wild had a chance to grab total control when Tony DeAngelo was called for slashing at 18:18 of the period.
Instead, after Holmstrom forced a turnover from Matt Boldy, the Swede sped his way down the ice and fed Casey Cizikas short-handed to tie the game at 3-3 with 26 seconds to go in the period, setting the stage for the last 20 minutes of regulation.
The Wild had the better of the chances all game, but rained down pressure in the third. Hughes, spellbinding all night, seemed to have the puck attached to his stick on a yo-yo string, at one point sending Maxim Tsyplakov to the ice with an Allen Iverson-esque crossover.
Despite it, the Islanders kept their structure intact, and Ilya Sorokin was solid when called upon, including a trio of in-tight stops on Danila Yurov around the halfway point of the period.
The Islanders held fast into overtime, and 3-on-3 hockey — all their overtime losses have come in shootouts — continued to be this team’s unsung strength. Holmstrom tucked in a backhander, his second goal of the night, to end it.
From the jump, the night was alight with offense. Ben Jones and Jean-Gabriel Pageau traded goals in the game’s first five minutes. Boldly got one a 5-on-3 power play to put Minnesota up 2-1 late in the first; Holmstrom — whose game has found another level over the past week — answered back with a snipe from above the left circle 1:29 into the second.
This was high-level hockey, the sort you’d find deep in the spring, and the two teams that traded blows Saturday can both dream of doing so late in the calendar.
Hughes and Kaprizov are two of the only opposing players in the league against whom Matthew Schaefer does not look like the best skater on the ice, and it might be the rookie defenseman — who held his own but did not impose his will on the proceedings — who has the most to take away from this one.
Adam Boqvist, who re-entered the lineup for Cole McWard, wasted no time in fumbling the opportunity with a brutal turnover that required Sorokin’s best save of the night — going right to stop Yakov Trenin off Vinnie Hinostroza’s feed — to bail him out.
The Islanders spent much of the night on their heels, particularly against a fearsome Minnesota top six. It mattered little in the end, and they defended well enough that coach Patrick Roy may feel it worthwhile to give these lines another spin Tuesday night in Winnipeg.
This win, though, is one the Islanders ought to enjoy for 24 hours before moving on.
