TEMPE, Ariz. — The Islanders are all the way across the country, but Mullett Arena felt a lot like home on Thursday.
The 4,600-capacity building was transformed into UBS Arena West as the Islanders beat the Coyotes 5-1 in front of a crowd that featured more blue and orange than kachina.
After struggling throughout a 5-4 overtime loss in Denver two nights earlier, this was exactly the sort of bounce-back the Islanders needed.
They managed the puck — and moved it — with far more ease, controlling the run of play against a team which has surprisingly put itself into the playoff conversation.
It is their first win of 2024 and one the Islanders will hope can inspire them to recover their form of early December as opposed to their water-treading of the past couple of weeks.
The crowd even avoided that most unscrupulous feature of the 2023-24 Islanders: a third period to break apart their nerve endings.
That looked all but inevitable after Arizona cut a 2-0 lead to 2-1 on Nick Schmaltz’s power-play goal at 3:29 of the second period, and after the score stayed that way entering the third.
But 4:29 into the last period, Anders Lee capitalized after Mathew Barzal created a turnover in the defensive zone to beat Connor Ingram and extend the lead back to two goals.
And just 53 seconds later, Julien Gauthier scored off the rush to make it 4-1, setting off a cacophony of “Let’s go Islanders” chants.
And if any Islanders fans still harbored the ghosts of past blown leads at that point, Bo Horvat put those worries to rest by making it 5-1 at the 13:05 mark, sealing a rare third period in which the Islanders did nothing but dominate.
If the Islanders could do that more often, there would be a whole lot of nerve endings saved among those who wear blue and orange.
Those fans instead had to settle for the hope that this can mark the start of a new trend, in which the Isles control games from the jump.
The Islanders’ power play struck just 11 seconds into its first opportunity of the night, with Horvat converting from the slot at the 7:56 mark of the first period.
Less than five minutes later, Barzal’s cross-ice feed found Mike Reilly at the left circle, where he doubled the lead.
The assist was Barzal’s 400th career point, on the night he earned his third career All-Star nod and first since 2020.
Both were just rewards for Barzal’s best offensive campaign since he won the 2017-18 Calder Trophy as the league’s Rookie of the Year.
It also marked a return to form for the top line, which combined to contribute six points and three goals on the evening.
Outside of Schmaltz’s goal — which occurred before Reilly could rejoin the play after an Arizona five-on-three expired — the Islanders in truth had the better of this one just as they did in the October match between these teams in which the Coyotes were held to fewer than 20 shots.
This one required more legwork from Ilya Sorokin, who was up to the task in making 25 saves including a number of high-danger stops during a helter-skelter second period.
But it was easily one of the best games the Islanders have played during the 4-3-3 stretch that has marked their last 10.
Two points amid a hail of “Let’s go Islanders” chants on the road were proof positive of that.
There are not many teams that look forward to coming to this building, which is a far cry from an NHL facility. But on Thursday, the Islanders at least had that memory to leave with.
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