With A Playoff Win At UBS Arena, The New York Islanders Are Home At Last

By simply stepping on the ice at UBS Arena Friday night, a septuple of Islanders set an unbreakable NHL record that has never been approached by the likes of Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Alex Ovechkin or, quite frankly, anyone at all who has ever worn a uniform over the last century.

Because, let’s face it, who would ever play home playoff games for the same team in three different arenas in an 11-year span? Or, technically, five home arenas, if you want to count the pandemic summer of 2020 and the “home” games the Islanders played in empty arenas in Toronto and Edmonton.

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In reality, it’s four incarnations of three arenas, with the Islanders twice closing out Nassau Coliseum. Which they’d much rather talk about than the place they played in between.

“You know, Barclays…” Scott Mayfield, one of the seven Islanders in this very select group, said with a laugh Thursday afternoon before trailing off. “Wasn’t our favorite rink, I think that’s safe to say.”

The handful of youngsters in the Islanders’ core will never have to worry about saying something similar about UBS Arena — nor ever have to envision approaching or matching the record burnished Friday by Mayfield and teammates Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Anders Lee Matt Martin, Brock Nelson and Ryan Pulock.

The veterans all played key roles as the Islanders ushered in playoff hockey at UBS Arena Friday night with a raucous 5-1 win over the Hurricanes in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

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It was an appropriate reward for those who’d endured the peripatetic path to UBS Arena — off and on the ice.

As was promised, the new building felt like a modern version of Nassau Coliseum, with the lower roof holding in the din generated by a rowdy crowd of 17,255 whose profane chants could be heard from the parking lot an hour before faceoff.

The noise grew deafening in the final minutes of the third, when the Islanders set a playoff record by scoring four goals in a span fo 2:18 before the game ended 2.8 seconds early due to a spate of fights and Maxine Nightengale’s victory anthem rang out over the cacophony of sounds.

“It was pretty awesome,” Martin said. “I didn’t think anything would be like the Coliseum, but it was damn close.”

The seven veterans of three (or five) home arenas combined for eight points, with Cizikas scoring the first goal with an appropriate 7:11 left in the second. Martin, Mayfield and Lee all had insurance scores during the record-setting late-game flurry.

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“You look at our group, a lot of us have been together a long time,” Martin said. “And to be able to see this through with the group of guys that you’ve really kind of grew up with, so many guys I’ve played (with for) a long time here — we want to win together.

“Tonight’s a special night for everybody and for us to be able to get a couple goals definitely feels good.”

Whether the reward is limited to preventing the Islanders from being swept by the Hurricanes for the second time in four seasons remains to be seen. The Islanders are still down two games to one and looked for the first 56 minutes Friday like they have most of this season — possessing plenty of championship-caliber mettle, even if they are not quite a a championship-caliber contender.

But Friday night marked another chapter in a compelling 11-year chapter in franchise history, one that ensures none of the handful of younger core members of the Islanders ever have an idea of what their elders experienced.

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“We’ve had a strong group here for a long time,” Lee said. “And for us to be able to get the first win in here is pretty special. And this building’s going to be around for a long time.”