For a change, the New York Islanders gave all their fans home for the holidays something to cheer about. After laying down and dying in front of a nearly full building the day before Christmas Eve, the Islanders redeemed themselves by beating their rival Pittsburgh Penguins on the back of three second-period goals and Islanders legend Tristan Jarry.
It got a little hairy there—not a fan in UBS Arena last night didn’t have a feeling of “here we go again” when the Pens made it 4-3 just before the second period ended—but the Islanders responded extremely well in the third, largely neutralizing anything the Penguins wanted to do and adding an insurance goal to allow us all to breathe.