Had the Islanders lost on Saturday, the third-period penalty Robert Bortuzzo took would have been chief among the reasons why.
Bortuzzo’s hook of Jaccob Slavin looked for a moment as though it was a necessary play, with Slavin on a breakaway and the Islanders holding a 2-1 lead.
But Kyle Palmieri was coming in to cut off Slavin’s angle and the penalty set up Stefan Noesen to score on the power play, sending Game 4 to overtime.
So the relief for the 35-year-old veteran whose shot from the blue line was tipped in by Mat Barzal in double overtime to extend the Islanders’ season to a Game 5 and become one of the day’s heroes instead was palpable.
“Obviously disappointed to take a penalty in a big moment there,” Bortuzzo said following the 3-2 win. “Kinda got caught up in a weird change. Regardless, it stings, but this is a group that’s resilient. We pick each other up here when guys make mistakes and then you get a chance to contribute and one finds the net. It’s just a case of sticking with it and trying not to get too high or too low.”
The assist was Bortuzzo’s first point as an Islander or of the 2023-24 season, which he started with the Blues. Since being traded to the Islanders in December, Bortuzzo has been in and out of the lineup, suffering a high-ankle sprain in January and being an occasional healthy scratch since returning.
In the playoffs, coach Patrick Roy has trusted Bortuzzo over Sebastian Aho because of his more defensive game, despite numbers that haven’t painted his impact kindly.
That finally paid off Saturday.
“What I love about him is that he brings that stability that we need,” Roy said. “He’s a big man, he’s tough to play against and it’s nice to see someone be rewarded by the way he’s playing. I thought he had a strong game. Sometimes the plus and minus, they’re not always a fair thing and seeing him being on the ice on that winning goal and put that puck on net, I was happy for him.”
The series going five games guarantees that Lou Lamoriello will break Glen Sather’s record for playoff games as a general manager, with Tuesday set to be his 325th.
The Islanders did not hold practice on Sunday with two days between Games 4 and 5.
