It shouldn’t have gone to overtime. The Islanders should’ve had more than a 1-0 lead on the Ducks after a thoroughly dominating first period in front of the home fans.
Both are valid points, but ultimately meaningless. The Islanders needed a win, period, and Josh Bailey’s solo effort through three Ducks and past goaltender John Gibson 54 seconds into overtime gave the Isles what they needed in a 3-2 win Sunday.
“We honestly felt good about how we played games one and two,” said Cal Clutterbuck, who assisted on Bailey’s winner and John Tavares’ third-period goal. “They were two tough games in tough buildings. But we got to come home and our fans gave us that boost we needed.”
If Sunday’s opening 20 minutes were because of the sold-out Barclays Center crowd, the Islanders may be invincible at home.
The home side came out of a modest opening-night ceremony - the team skated to center ice en masse rather than via individual introductions, as they did the past two seasons -and scorched the Ducks.
The shots were 12-0 at the 12-minute mark. Worse still, the shot attempts were 19-0 - Anaheim didn’t throw any frozen rubber within spitting distance of Jaroslav Halak’s net until almost 14 minutes had elapsed and only one of their three first-period shots on goal came from inside the Islanders zone.
The total first-period shot attempts were 28-5 for the Isles in that span, which included three power plays.
But still it was a one-goal lead, on Brock Nelson’s spin-around shot past Gibson at 7:47 off a feed from Jason Chimera.
“It was definitely weird,” Halak said. “They had no shots and it was because we did a really good job, we cycled the puck, we were skating well.”
The script flipped a bit in the second with the Isles giving the Ducks four power plays despite the chippy play generated by the visitors increasing. Halak made 13 second-period saves and the Islanders blocked 15 shots in front of him, though one of those could be damaging.
Casey Cizikas blocked a point shot with the unprotected back of his leg late in the second. He stayed on the bench and tried to take a shift in the third but ended up in the dressing room for the night.
“We lost Casey at a crucial time in the game,” Jack Capuano said.
The Islanders seemed to seize control in the third when Tavares followed up his feed for Clutterbuck and buried a second try after Clutterbuck, who had broken his stick on a shot, kicked the puck back to Tavares for a scoring chance. That goal made it 2-0 with 12:01 to go.
But the Ducks answered when Cam Fowler’s wrist shot deflected off Thomas Hickey’s foot and past Halak 32 seconds later. And Ryan Getzlaf tied it with a minute to play and the Ducks net empty, a quick one-timed wrist shot that eluded Halak and sent the game to OT.
“It was overall a good game, even though it came down to overtime when it never should have gotten there,” said Halak, who made 24 saves. “We’re glad we got the two points.”

RESULTS
NY Islanders 3 Anaheim 2 (OT)
Buffalo 6 Edmonton 2
Vancouver 4 Carolina 3 (OT)