– The Islanders surrendered the first goal of the game when Pesce opened the scoring at the 15:35 mark, taking a pass from Nico Hischier with all sorts of time and space. The Isles found the equalizer off a lucky break, when Markstrom misplayed the puck, as he shot it off Jonas Siegenthaler and into the hands of Holmstrom, who took deposited the puck into the open net at the 12:10 mark of the second period to tie the score.
“We’ll take that bounce, it ends up on his stick,” Anders Lee said. “It’s an example of always putting pressure on, something good might happen.”
– Rittich was sharp early, facing a flurry of Devils shots in the first period and turning aside 14-of-15 in the opening 20 minutes. He robbed Jack Hughes on a breakaway in the second period to keep the Isles within one. With the game tied at one apiece in the third, he stuck with Connor Brown and denied his shot from the right side of the crease before he came up with another big save on a shot from Luke Hughes, making the stop with his leg and losing his skate blade in the process. The Isles home crowd got into it, as “Rittich” chants echoed through the arena. After the game, the netminder said he appreciated the love from the fans. He got the love from his teammates too, earning the Iron Man mask after his eighth win of the season.
“He made huge saves for us,” Roy said. “Even in the first, he kept us in the game, and we had a really strong second period, but in the third, the moment we gave up a few chances he came up big. I love his energy out there. He battles, he fights and it’s impressive.”