Depleted Islanders get feel-good road victory as winning recipe comes into view

And just like that, the Islanders are victors in three of four.

Back to NHL-.500.

Back to feeling good about the way things are going.

And, perhaps, finding themselves despite a flood of injuries.

It was 4-2 over the Senators on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Center, and a winning formula that still depends first on hard-nosed defense and good goaltending is coming into focus, even as the Islanders still are without the entire left side of their blue line.

“I thought everybody showed up,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said after scoring a goal in his hometown. “We have a lot of guys hurt, and guys are stepping up. They’re doing a hell of a job.”

Grant Hutton and Dennis Cholowski have played well in spelling the regulars, but it is the call-up of Isaiah George — who skated with Noah Dobson on the top pair in just his second NHL game — that has made something click here.

George, taken with the 98th-overall pick in 2022 that was acquired in the draft-floor deal that also sent Alexander Romanov to the Isles, has been a stabilizing force on the back end, playing calm beyond his years.

Nobody should get carried away off two games, but George’s poise has indeed transferred onto the rest of a club that was reeling just last week.

The Islanders played this one out patiently, dominating puck possession in the first, leaning hard on goaltender Semyon Varlamov in the second and the game sitting at zeroes through the first 35 minutes.

You could attach the “boring” label to these Islanders and it wouldn’t be wrong, but they won’t mind one bit if they are as effective as they were Thursday.

The revamped first line of Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Pageau — which, by the way, now has more goals than Anthony Duclair, Horvat and Mat Barzal did in one fewer game — finally broke through.

Lee snapped in the puck off Horvat’s backhand feed from behind the net at 15:49 of the second, continuing a superb start to the year for the captain.

Horvat picked up another assist less than three minutes later when Pageau got behind Ottawa’s defense and scored past Anton Forsberg, a homecoming goal for the former Senator.

“We’re finding our spots with each other. I think the chemistry’s there,” Lee said. “Understanding where each of us want to be, and we’re feeding into each other’s strengths. I think when those things happen, good pucks get on your stick and you can make plays.”

Less than three minutes into the third, the fourth line contributed its first goal of the season as Oliver Wahlstrom backhanded in Matt Martin’s rebound — his first goal since Nov. 24, 2023, which, by coincidence, also was in Ottawa.

Still, this would not come without some stress.

Nick Jensen spoiled the shutout with a right-circle snipe 7:43 into the third, and seven minutes later, Drake Batherson cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal in front.

With pressure bearing down on the Islanders at five-on-six in the final minute, though, Horvat sealed the game with an empty-net goal.

Varlamov finished with 28 saves, a second straight strong outing after a less-than-ideal start to the season for the netminder.

“All the injuries we have, we’re gonna need great goaltending, and Varly was really good tonight, like Ilya [Sorokin] was the game before against Pittsburgh,” coach Patrick Roy said. “… They had a lot of tips and stuff like this, so it was not an easy game for Varly, but I thought he did a really nice job.”

These past four games are just a microcosm and an even smaller sample than the first 10 games that caused everybody to question whether the Islanders were headed for the draft lottery.

But even with a long way still to go before the lineup is whole again, things feel entirely different than they did around this team just seven days prior.

The Islanders have some swagger back, and that is not nothing.