Islanders beginning to believe again as 3rd-period fortunes turn

Dec 9, 2023; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders players celebrate after defeating the Los Angeles Kings in overtime at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

ELMONT, N.Y. — The Islanders can, in fact, pull out comeback victories of their own in the third period, too.

For a team that had been hampered and derailed by third-period calamaties all season, it appears as though Lane Lambert’s men are finally putting things together in order to create full 60-minute efforts. 

A team that squandered 10 third-period leads already this season, including five losses in which they led after two periods, the Islanders hit their lowest point on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks in which they blew a 4-1 third-period lead to lose 5-4 in overtime. 

The late collapses overshadowed what had been enough promising tendencies to suggest New York could be a contender. Their power play was clicking at a 35% rate over a three-week stretch, the penalty kill was evening out, and they had a plus-14 goal differential in the first and second periods. 

“You have to be very, very careful of th enegatives getting int he way of the positives here,” Lambert said. “I get it’s skewed because of the overtime or shootout losses but you have to be very, very careful with the negtativity outweighting the positives and there’s a lot of positives and there’s a lot of positives.”

Even more positives emerged over their last two games when, for the first time this season, the Islanders showed life in the third period. They scored three times in the final 20 minutes on Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets to secure a 7-3 victory.

“This just gave us some belief that we can go out there and do it,” center Bo Horvat said after that win.

On Saturday night, they overturned a 2-0 deficit behind two Anders Lee goals to stun the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime and hand them their first road loss of the season.

“We’ve responded the last two…