Oliver Wahlstrom, Anders Lee goals lead Islanders past Devils

The descriptor "Not a Picasso" is commonly applied to less-than-artful wins.

Well, this one was barely a stick figure for the Islanders. But it was a crucial two points.

"I thought we had pretty good poise," coach Barry Trotz said. "I didn’t think we had a lot of energy tonight. I think the games have piled up on us emotionally."

The Islanders, playing their third game in four days while starting a stretch of 16 in 28 days this month, overcame two sluggish periods for a 2-1 win over the Devils, who welcomed a sell-out crowd of 1,800 back into Prudential Center on Tuesday night.

It was the first game the Islanders played in front of fans since March 20, 2020 in Vancouver, two days before the NHL paused last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a stretch of 22 postseason games and 21 regular-season games.

There was a vocal mixture of Islanders’ fans among the limited crowd.

"You could tell right in warmups," said defenseman Andy Greene, the ex-Devils captain. "It’s amazing after playing 43 games without fans, how much 1,800 makes a difference. There’s a lot of energy and it’s good to see the fans coming back in certain arenas now."

Semyon Varlamov (28 saves) nearly had the second straight shutout for the Islanders (12-6-4) after Ilya Sorokin blanked the Penguins, 2-0, on Sunday at Nassau Coliseum. But Miles Wood scored with 13.2 seconds left with the Devils skating six-on-five.

Still, the Islanders extended their streak to 4-0-1 as they killed off all four of the Devils’ power plays.

"Tonight was one of those games where not a lot was going on," said captain Anders Lee, who scored his team-leading 10th goal by jamming in his own rebound at the right post past Aaron Dell (18 saves) to make it 2-0 at 7:51 of the third period. "The second period, there’s a lot of penalties —and a great job by our killers — but that doesn’t create a lot of flow for our lines. It was one of those games that felt a little stagnant at times. We tried to get to our game in the third period."

Rookie Oliver Wahlstrom extended his career-high point streak to five games as he skated the puck into the Devils’ zone and beat Dell, making just his second start, over his blocker and under the crossbar from the top of the right circle for a 1-0 lead at 1:10 of the third period.

"Coming into this year, I’ve kind of fallen in love with the details of my game, the little details," said Wahlstrom, the 11th overall pick in 2018 who went without a point in nine games for the Islanders last season but has four goals and four assists in 15 games this season. "I feel that’s helping bring me more enjoyment to the game and I’m thinking less about production."

The Islanders outshot the Devils, 8-4, in a sleepy first period with defenseman Ryan Pulock’s hard blast off the crossbar at 10:22 causing the biggest stir. Also notable was the Devils winning 13 of the game’s first 15 faceoffs.

The Devils held a 16-5 shot advantage in the second period, helped by three power plays in the opening 11:07. The Islanders held the Devils to two shots on a five-on-three that lasted for 25 seconds after Cal Clutterbuck slashed Nikita Gusev at 4:16 with Pulock already in the penalty box but Varlamov had to make four saves on the subsequent five-on-four.

"We all knew we had better," defenseman Nick Leddy said. "We had a slow start. But I thought we managed the game well."

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.