Alexander Romanov, correctly, called it a clean hit.
Miles Wood was skating through the middle of the ice, the Islanders leading by two in the middle of the second period on Friday night. Romanov laid him out — emphatically, but legally — and chaos ensued.
Michael McLeod jumped Romanov in defense of his Devils teammate, earning a two-minute instigator penalty, a five-minute fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct. Romanov was quickly escorted to the penalty box to serve a five-minute fighting major. Wood needed help off the ice and didn’t play the rest of the game. The tension at Prudential Center ratcheted up to 11 and stayed there for the duration of the eventual 6-4 Islanders victory.
“I can’t just let him skate through four guys and score,” Romanov said afterward. “I never chase guys. I never try to hit, like, destroy somebody. It’s just a clean hit.”
That was the biggest moment of the game for Romanov, in what was almost certainly his best performance as an Islander to date. With Adam Pelech nursing an upper-body injury, Romanov was second only to his partner, Scott Mayfield, with 24:45 of ice time — including a sizable chunk against New Jersey’s high-powered line of Tomas Tatar, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt.
He set the game’s physical tone, finished a plus-one, and had the primary assist on two Islanders goals for his first multi-point game in blue and orange. Ahead of the game, it was obvious the Islanders would need their defensemen to step up with Pelech out.
Afterward?
“When he’s playing like that,” Brock Nelson said of Romanov, “he’s gotta be a tough guy to play against.”
The Devils tried to come back at Romanov throughout the night, but the 22-year-old held his own.
“After every hit, somebody tried to drop the gloves,” Romanov said. “Not surprised.”
The Islanders gave up a lot to acquire Romanov at the draft, trading their first-round pick for a player they thought could shore up the left side of their blue line for the foreseeable future. That trade can only be judged over a period of time far longer than 28 games.
But on Friday, it looked pretty good.
Anthony Beauvillier left the game at 8:54 of the first after going hard into the end boards and did not return. Coach Lane Lambert had no update on him following the game.
Cal Clutterbuck returned from an upper-body injury to play 13:20, scoring in the third period. He played the final 40 minutes with a full cage after taking a hit to the face in the first period.
Pelech and Kyle Palmieri (upper-body) didn’t travel to Newark.
