WASHINGTON — With each passing game, the playoffs are looking more and more like an inevitability for the Islanders.
After Kyle Palmieri’s shootout winner propelled the Isles to a 2-1 win over the Capitals on Wednesday, the Isles have two more points on the board, just seven games left and, according to MoneyPuck, odds of making it into the postseason at over 95 percent.
That is reflective of a math problem that is becoming just about impossible for the Panthers — the first team below the cutline — to solve, and the Isles look to have the upper hand over the Penguins for the first wild-card spot, too.
Two months ago, with the Islanders reeling going into the All-Star break, this scenario would have been implausible.
Now it is reality.
All that remains is to make it official by clinching.
It took the Islanders until the third period of this match to start putting together an offensive rhythm, but a hardened structure throughout blunted the cost of a quiet first 40 minutes.
The Isles couldn’t end the game in regulation, but managed to win in a shootout for the first time this year. Ilya Sorokin came up with more than one huge stop in OT, including on Alexander Ovechkin at the doorstep and on a two-on-one with Tom Wilson failing to score. Almost immediately following that, Wilson was called for tripping, but it didn’t matter in the end.
Finally winning in a shootout — a format in which the Isles have been miserable this season — adds some catharsis to the win as well.
After a first period in which the Islanders got off just three shots on net, Pierre Engvall got them on the board with a wrister that bounced off Darcy Kuemper’s chest pad and in 3:52 into the second.
Conor Sheary tied the game in short order with a backhander at 6:22 of the period, but the good news, for anyone tempted to lay down in a row of Capital One Arena seats and nap after the first 20 minutes, was that the action picked up a little bit.
And for the Islanders, who in particular lacked energy for parts of this game, they had something to work with.
Even so, this one was a slog.
Unlike Monday’s win over the Devils, this game just didn’t carry much tension or energy — the Caps are about as close to being eliminated as the Isles are to getting into the playoffs, which does not make for much suspense.
A generous interpretation would be that this was a tight-checking affair.
A more accurate interpretation would be that not much happened, and though there is certainly an undercurrent of healthy dislike between the Islanders and Caps, it only spilled over briefly towards the end of the match, when Nicolas Aube-Kubel jumped on Scott Mayfield after Mayfield laid out Sheary — a hit that was whistled for boarding.
Of course, all that matters for the Islanders is that they got on the plane with two points.
The pressure is now off the Islanders going into what will be a tough back-to-back in Tampa and Carolina on Friday and Saturday.
Over a three-game road trip, this was the one they needed to get.
Another win would be a bonus, two more would be manna from heaven.
After this, though, clinching feels very much like a matter of when, not if.
And the Isles are one step closer.