NEW YORK _ There's no time to mince words or let games slip for the Islanders. A one-goal lead entering the third period at home against the worst team in the NHL on Sunday meant one thing for the Islanders captain.
"You have to step on some throats there," John Tavares said. His line did the trick on its opening shift of the third, applying pressure around the Avalanche net until Tavares slid a slick pass to Anders Lee for the key goal that led to a 5-1 Islanders win.
Sunday's victory erased the bad taste of a shutout loss the day before in Ottawa. It brought the Islanders to within a point of the last playoff spot in the East, currently held by the Leafs, whom the Isles visit on Tuesday. And it erased the lingering bad taste of a poor performance for backup goaltender J-F Berube, who allowed five goals in an overtime loss on Feb. 4 and had to wait over a week to get his next crack at it.
"It's like anything, when you don't have a good game you want to get right back in and prove yourself. This one hung around for a little bit," said Berube, who allowed a Joe Colborne breakaway goal 8:12 in and stopped the other 26 shots he faced Sunday. "I had to try and block it out and it gave me some things to work on in practice. I think I tried to do a little too much last game (a 5-4 OT loss to the Hurricanes) so I went back to basics tonight."
So did the Islanders, who fell behind on that Colborne goal and exited the first period tied after Nick Leddy's seeing-eye wrister at 12:01. Ryan Strome's five-on-three goal, off another dazzler of a pass from Tavares, gave the Isles a lead headed to the third, but not one any team would find comfortable, even against an Avalanche team that's 11 points out of 29th.
"That's what a road team wants, to hang around," Doug Weight said. "I know they are where they are in the standings, but you have to step on throats. Especially at home."
Lee's 20th of the year came just 81 seconds into the third and he followed with his 21st on the power play off a good Johnny Boychuk setup at 11:22. Jason Chimera chipped in one more at 13:48 and the Islanders continued two encouraging trends.
They moved to a positive goal differential in the third period (59-58), a frame that bedeviled them early this season. And the Isles haven't lost consecutive games in regulation since Dec. 13 and 15, a span of 25 games over which they've gone 14-6-5.
"You have to play the full 60, or most of it, to get the right results," said Boychuk, who had two assists. "We've been doing a better job of that of late."
A big part of that has been Lee, who broke through the 20-goal plateau for the second time in three full NHL seasons and is on pace for 32 this season. He has 20 goals and 32 points in his last 35 games and has meshed well with Tavares and Josh Bailey, a consistent and true No. 1 line for the Isles.
"I think him and Bails have proved a lot of people wrong as far as guys who can play those kind of minutes," Weight said. "They've helped Johnny in a lot of ways too."
