The New York Islanders continued their late-season winning ways this afternoon on national TV as they hung on to beat the New Jersey Devils, who made it interesting after falling behind 3-0.
That 3-0 lead was built entirely off goals by Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who recorded a natural hat trick for his first one as an Islander. The Devils, shooting on old friend Cory Schneider—making his Islanders debut and playing in and starting his first NHL game in over two years—twice cut the Islanders' multi-goal lead down to one, but the Islanders held on. Kyle Palmieri’s late insurance goal proved to be the game-winner.