Islanders skid-snapping overtime win over Bruins provides tease of what could be

BOSTON — Lately, it seems as though the Islanders are able to do this every three or four games. In a way, that’s what makes it all the more frustrating that they’ve had such a terrible past four weeks.They know they are capable of playing like they played on Sunday against the Bruins, going into a playoff team’s building, controlling much of the game and walking out with a 5-4 overtime victory after Bo Horvat’s game-winner. Encouraging as it was to see the Islanders break their three-game losing streak and play a straight-line game in which they tilted the TD Garden ice in the right direction on Sunday, though, the issue at this point in the season is not whether the Islanders can play a good game. It’s whether they can play multiple games in a row like this.

And the more they struggle to do that, the more good games in a row they need to climb out of their hole. Even with the injured list growing — Isaiah George (suspected concussion) joining Simon Holmstrom (upper body) — the Islanders put together the kind of game that could be used as a springboard. They responded after early adversity, they played well enough on special teams to win and more top-heavy forward lines with Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri split up for the first time all season showed good chemistry. Nonetheless, the Islanders were still hanging on tight to a 3-2 lead entering the third after Justin Brazeau pulled the Bruins within one at 10:18 of the second. Within five minutes of the third period, the Islanders and Bruins had traded goals, with Anders Lee and David Pastrnak both taking advantage of defensive-zone turnovers to make it 4-2, then 4-3. With the Bruins pouring down pressure, Pastrnak struck again with 7:16 to go, converting Pavel Zacha’s feed to the back post by beating Alexander Romanov to the spot. Playing three-on-three hockey for the first time in a month, Horvat got up ice and finished a breakaway to give the Islanders just their second overtime win of ...