The New York Islanders and Boston Bruins will complete their regular-season series on Wednesday night in Elmont, N.Y.
But as a pair of teams in the tightly bunched Eastern Conference, neither needs to be reminded how results in November might impact their playoff hopes in April.
The Islanders will look to continue surging and the Bruins will aim to curtail a slump when they face off.
Both clubs have been off since Sunday, when the host Islanders outlasted the Seattle Kraken 1-0 in a shootout and the visiting Bruins fell 3-1 to the San Jose Sharks.
The Islanders, who tied a franchise record with six wins on a seven-game road trip that ended last Thursday, were on the verge of suffering a second straight defeat to open a seven-game homestand Sunday before Bo Horvat extended the shootout by ringing a shot off the top post and into the net.
New York’s David Rittich stopped Seattle’s Chandler Stephenson to open the fourth round before Kyle Palmieri collected the game-winner to close out the first 1-0 game decided in the shootout this season and the Islanders’ first 1-0 shootout victory since Nov. 24, 2014.
“Finding a way to win close games gives you confidence,” Palmieri said. “To be able to come back and win a tight game like this will do well and hopefully give us some momentum for this homestand here.”
The Islanders enter Wednesday’s game in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 28 points and two points ahead of the Bruins in the Eastern Conference race.
The margin for error has shrunk considerably over a mistake-prone last two weeks for the Bruins, who have lost four of six (2-4-0) since a seven-game winning streak that began with a 5-2 win over the Islanders on Oct. 28.
Boston was tied with the Montreal Canadiens atop the Atlantic Division and four points clear of the wild card spots on Nov. 11, when the Bruins closed out their winning streak by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3.
The Bruins, who earned four comeback victories during their winning streak, haven’t led in any of their last four losses, a span in which they’ve been whistled for 37 penalties. Boston entered Tuesday averaging 12.5 penalty minutes per game, second-most in the NHL, while allowing 94 power-play opportunities, the most in the league.
On Sunday, Boston committed seven penalties and surrendered Macklin Celebrini’s game-winning power play goal in the second period — just the third power-play goal in 25 opportunities against the Bruins over the last six games.
The Bruins failed to collect the equalizer despite outshooting the Sharks 25-19 over the final two periods.
“It’s every game,” said Bruins right winger David Pastrnak, who had the primary assist on Morgan Geekie’s third-period goal. “Too much relying on the penalty kill.”
