5-2 victory over the Panthers<\/a> on Saturday, when the Islanders erupted for five goals in the second period to mark their best offensive frame of the season, Cizikas\u2019 prediction came to fruition.<\/p>\nMarc Gatcomb started the scoring barrage with his second goal of the season. And to cap everything, Cizikas collected his ninth goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s contagious,\u201d Bo Horvat said of the fourth line. \u201cI mean, you see how hard they work and the stuff they create just by hard work, and it doesn\u2019t take talent to work hard \u2014 and they show that every single night that their work ethic and compete, it drives our group. It really does. It\u2019s been fun to watch them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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New York Islanders center Casey Cizikas (53) attempts a shot past Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) and center Carter Verhaeghe (23) during the first period of a game at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. on Saturday, March 28, 2026. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
In his pregame news conference, Roy said that the fourth line deserved some goals. They deserved to get rewarded for how they\u2019d been playing. Maybe they were just tense. Maybe they needed to loosen up around the net. But in a year defined by plenty of line shuffling, he expressed optimism in his current iteration of that group \u2014 with Cizikas centering Gatcomb and Kyle MacLean.<\/p>\n
Gatcomb delivered his goal 5:28 into the second period, when he sped through center ice, veered down the right side and flipped a shot toward the net that snuck past Daniil Tarasov. It\u2019s one that the Panthers backup goaltender likely wants back, Gatcomb said, but \u201cthat\u2019s a huge momentum shifter.\u201d And after three goals followed, Cizikas capped the frame with a goal after his second swing at a rebound turned into a goal.<\/p>\n
That group has tried to do everything they can to contribute, Gatcomb said. Sometimes, and especially recently, it might not end up on the scoresheet. Cizikas had scored just once this month. MacLean hadn\u2019t scored since Jan. 13. For Gatcomb, the goal drought started Dec. 9.<\/p>\n
But Saturday, they collected five of the Islanders\u2019 18 high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick, capturing just how important depth production can be during the push for a postseason spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re happy for them, because they play so well and they play so hard,\u201d Roy said. \u201cThe intensity from the start of their shift to the end of their shift is the same. \u2026 I mean, it\u2019s a tough line to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n
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New York Islanders center Kyle MacLean (32) takes a shot during the third period of a game against the Florida Panthers at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. on Saturday, March 28, 2026. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Brayden Schenn\u2019s three-point afternoon marked his first multipoint game since joining the Islanders ahead of the trade deadline. He scored during the second period and assisted on the goals from Simon Holmstrom and Emil Heineman. Schenn also blocked three shots, the second most on the Islanders behind just Ryan Pulock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what he\u2019s been doing since he\u2019s been here,\u201d Roy said. \u201cThis afternoon, I mean, he had the points, but I mean, I feel like he\u2019s been playing like this since he\u2019s been here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer, who moved into a tie with Stefan Persson (1977-78) for most points by an Islanders defenseman during his rookie season (56), was on the ice for four of their five goals during the scoring burst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islanders Casey Cizikas could sense it. The fourth line was close to breaking through. When the Islanders center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[3669,1287,246,24653,8020,3427,57,60981,5,122,34754,9135,374,3328,159,5190,5189,4,63,2905,5549,4652],"class_list":["post-528695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-bo-horvat","tag-brayden-schenn","tag-carter-verhaeghe","tag-casey-cizikas","tag-daniil-tarasov","tag-emil-heineman","tag-florida-panthers","tag-heather-khalifa","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-kyle-maclean","tag-marc-gatcomb","tag-matthew-schaefer","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-panthers","tag-patrick-roy","tag-ryan-pulock","tag-simon-holmstrom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116310396374243633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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