The Islanders are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-1 in the Stanley Cup Semifinals. To get there, they had to go through the Boston Bruins and Brock Nelson made sure New York ended that series in six games with a big goal and then another one. Fans chose his second of the evening as the goal of the round. Thank you for voting and look for another poll after the semifinals are over.

Nelson has found his clutch gene. His nine goals in clinching games are the most in the NHL since 2017. Early in the second period, he broke a 1-1 tie after stealing the puck from Matt Grzelcyk. A little over seven minutes later, New York’s forecheck went to work and Nelson added some insurance. Let’s break it down.

The play started with a dump in deflected by Josh Bailey behind the Boston net. Tuukka Rask came out to stop it and made a pass. Anthony Beauvillier started the forecheck and forced Rask to move the puck quickly. This led to a mistake. Rask’s pass ended up hard at Mike Reilly and it handcuffed him and bounced away.

Meanwhile, Nelson prepared his position on the forecheck. He moved toward the middle of the ice to cut off a potential pass to Craig Smith on the right win. Instead, he got something better. Bailey chopped the puck to a wide-open Nelson in front of the net with Beauvillier right there to back him up. The play happened so quickly that Connor Clifton couldn’t get back to his position in time which allowed Nelson time to stickhandle.

Nelson knew that Rask was out of position and would make a hard push toward him and maybe even get a piece of a tap-in try. To compensate, the Islanders’ forward pulled the puck to his backhand and allowed Rask to overcommit before slipping it under his pad.

Nelson scored another goal in Game 2 against Tampa Bay to pull into a tie with Kyle Palmieri for most playoff goals on the team. The Islanders will need their strong forecheck and Nelson’s clutch gene if they want to advance to the Stanley Cup FInal for the first time since 1984.

John Smark