Islanders fend off Sabres for stirring opening-night victory

All week, the Islanders said they were ready to go and maybe even a little restless, forced to wait until Saturday to start their 2023-24 regular season.

The energy they built up was well-spent, in the form of a hard-fought, 3-2 victory over the Sabres at UBS Arena on the back of a game-winner from Casey Cizikas.

It was the Islanders’ first opening-night win at home since 1995.

What will feel good about this one is not just the two points against a likely playoff rival or starting the season off right in front of the home crowd, though those factors are surely welcome.

But the Islanders took the lead early, then took it back when the momentum looked to be going the other way.

They put together the kind of complete 60-minute performance that eluded them too often last season.

These Islanders took the lead early, held on in a rocky second period and bore down in the third.

That was more than usually could be said of the 2022-23 Islanders.

Early in the final period, it looked as though a collapse was coming.

The Sabres’ Casey Mittelstadt tied the score at 2-2 just 2:34 into the period, taking advantage after Noah Dobson failed to clear the puck from the crease by sending a backhand past Ilya Sorokin.

The game opened up from there, turning into a track meet at its pivotal moments. Mittelstadt, at one point, hit iron twice in a span of seconds.

Then at 13:40, Cizikas tipped in Adam Pelech’s shot from the point — a goal that withstood a coach’s challenge for offside before it could be cemented into the scoreline.

It was a hold-your-breath moment for a hold-your-breath win — the sort of game that asked the Islanders to lose it again and again before they finally won it.

The best moments of offense, notably, came not in grinding possession, but in transition.

The opening goal, for example, had just as much to do with Pierre Engvall as it did with Brock Nelson. Engvall’s speed was on full display as he chased down Connor Clifton and turned him over on the left wall to create a chance, which Nelson buried at 5:57 of the first, extending his reputation for fast starts.

Nelson picked up an assist at 18:18 of the period as well, getting a stick on Ryan Pulock’s rebound before the puck caromed off the skates of Clifton and Kyle Palmieri. That gave Palmieri the goal and the Islanders the 2-0 lead.

Just over four minutes into the second period, though, Buffalo pulled one back as Jordan Greenway finished a scrambling run of play by sending Ilya Sorokin the wrong way and pushing one past him.

It looked, for a too-long spell following that goal, as if the Sabres had found a turning point.

The Islanders went from controlled in their own zone to on their heels, and struggled to tilt it back the other way.

That got worse before it got better.

Though one game is not worth anything in the way of grand takeaways, it is worth recalling that the Islanders last season finished ahead of Buffalo by two points, making the playoffs while the Sabres sat at home.

These games do end up mattering in the end, even if they function as nothing more than feel-good moments in the present.

Despite spending long stretches in their own defensive zone, the Islanders managed to prevent high-danger chances — flirting with danger but never forcing the entire onus onto Sorokin as has been the case all too often in the past.

The speed of the top two lines lent itself to strong counterattacks.

The lack of puck possession below the hashes is a problem, but the transition play is something to build on.

So, too, is a 1-0 record.