Islanders at Blues
The New York Islanders look to end their nine-game road trip with three straight victories and maintain a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference when they visit the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. The Islanders are 5-2-1 on their trek after knocking off Edmonton 4-1 on Tuesday and edging Vancouver 4-3 in overtime despite allowing 39 shots two nights later.
“There’s going to be games every night when teams are going to win that are right around us,” New York's Andrew Ladd told reporters after scoring the overtime winner on Thursday. “We just have to keep winning games. We know what’s ahead of us.” While the Islanders own a one-point lead over Toronto for the second wild card in the East, St. Louis has a three-point advantage over Los Angeles for the same position in the West. Defenseman Joel Edmundson scored with 20 seconds remaining in the third period on Friday as the Blues edged Anaheim 4-3 for their third straight win following a five-game slide. Leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko also tallied to reach the 30-goal mark for the third straight season for St. Louis, which saw Jori Lehtera and defenseman Colton Parayko go down with injuries in the contest.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NHL Network, MSG Plus (New York), FSN Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (32-23-11): Ladd has scored in two straight games and three of five to pull within one of his fourth straight 20-goal season and sixth overall. John Tavares tops the team with 57 points and has notched 30 of them in the last 27 games, including two goals and two assists in the last three games on the trip, while Anders Lee shares the club lead in goals (25) with the captain. Thomas Greiss (23-13-4, .918 save percentage) has started eight straight contests, and his next victory would best his career high that he set with the Islanders last season.
ABOUT THE BLUES (34-27-5): Coach Mike Yeo told reporters Parayko came out of the game as a precaution but is questionable for Saturday with an undisclosed injury and Lehtera was hit in the face with the puck. Tarasenko also registered an assist Friday to push his team-leading total to 59 points – 17 better than Jaden Schwartz, who contributed a pair of assists in the win. Veteran center Paul Stastny recorded a goal and an assist Friday while Jake Allen won his third straight decision, but the netminder could sit in favor of Carter Hutton in the second game of a back-to-back set.
OVERTIME
1. St. Louis RW Ryan Reaves scored his first goal in 18 games Friday and fourth of the campaign.
2. New York D Johnny Boychuk has missed the last three games with a foot injury and is questionable for Saturday.
3. The Islanders have won the last three meetings, including a 3-2 home victory on Dec. 8.