Okposo helps Islanders hand Sharks their 1st loss, 6-3

The teams entered the third period 3-3. Frans Neilsen’s empty-net goal with three minutes to go capped the scoring. “We kept our foot on the gas and kept pressing”.

For two periods the Islanders (3-1-1, seven points) kept falling behind, only to answer each time.

Sharks center Ben Smith left the game early in the second period as he took a shot off the face from Vlasic inside the Islanders’ zone. Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Johnny Boychuk scored the other goals. The refs conferred afterwards, but it was allowed to stand.

“Buckles came undone, and I just tried getting it off because I can’t see when it falls down on my head”, Stalock said.

“The ruling is if there is a scoring chance, they let it go, so he let it go”, Stalock said, referring to official Franocis St. Laurent. “It ended up going off me and in”. His shot was steered to the corner by Alex Stalock, but Okposo bounced the puck off the wall to himself, came out in front and scored 4:18 into the third period.

After an opening night overtime loss to the defending champion Blackhawks and a loss in Chicago the following night, the Isles won their third straight game at home.

“I thought we were able to grind them down”, said Islanders center John Tavares, who along with teammate Ryan Strome had two assists. “It was a good way to battle back and find a way to win….” Signed on the first day of free agency by Garth Snow, Thomas Greiss has made quite the impact on the Islanders as Jaroslav Halak recovers from an upper-body injury, but one has to backtrack several years just to understand the scope of Greiss’ recent contributions.

“It’s a big win”, Halak said. This will be the first game of the season where the Islanders dress their intended starting lineup.

“It’s good to be back”.

Flash forward to last season and one could spot the same trends with Halak as the goalie logged a significant amount of playing time en route to the number five seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. “I’ll take the win, even if it wasn’t pretty at times”. They have the weekend off before facing winless Columbus on Tuesday, so a four-game winning streak could be on the horizon.

“We sagged after that, which was a little disappointing”, DeBoer said. “There’s no doubt in this locker room. Every game doesn’t always go the way you script it. You don’t always get the lead and we found a way”. Instead, G Jean-Francois Berube was on the bench…. Okposo got the go-ahead goal early, the Isles’ first lead of the night, retrieving his own rebound behind the net after being stopped on a harassed breakaway. “We miss Logan Couture, too”, said DeBoer, referring to Couture’s fractured right fibula that will keep him another four-to-six weeks. San Jose D Dylan DeMelo made his National Hockey League debut, replacing Paul Martin, who was sidelined with a lower-body injury….

A four-game Sharks road trip concludes at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers on Monday.