Anders Lee stakes Islanders to series lead over Capitals

TORONTO — New York Islanders coach Barry Trotz isn’t surprised the Washington Capitals, his former team, is unhappy with Anders Lee.

Trotz didn’t see anything wrong with Lee’s play in a 4-2 first-round series playoff-opening victory in which the New York captain set the tone with a big hit on Capitals play-making forward Nicklas Backstrom and then scored a key goal in the Islanders rallying from a 2-0 deficit Wednesday.

“Playoff hockey should be right up Anders’ wheelhouse, if you will,” Trotz said. “He’s big. He’s strong. He scored an important goal. He had a hit. And he responded to (Tom) Wilson’s challenge. What more can you ask from a leader?”

Lee wound up getting into two fights, the first with defenseman John Carlson immediately after bowling over Backstrom with a heavy hit 2¹/₂ minutes in. Then he fought Wilson later in the period in being targeted for the hit, which led to Backstrom not returning after seven shifts.

Capitals coach Todd Reirden didn’t have an update on Backstrom’s status but called Lee’s hit “late” and “predatory.”

Carlson was more blunt in calling Lee’s hit as appearing “real dirty to me.”

Lee was penalized for interference after a shoulder-to-shoulder hit in which Backstrom appeared to be looking the other way and didn’t have the puck.

“I tried to throw the brakes on a little bit there, but I caught him,” Lee said. “The end result after that was a penalty, a couple of fights. It was settled, and then the game continued on.”

Jordan Eberle and Lee tied it 2-2 by scoring 1 minutes, 54 seconds apart spanning the second intermission. Josh Bailey scored the go-ahead goal with the Islanders short-handed 6:52 into the third period.

And Anthony Beauvillier capped a four-goal outburst in a game the Islanders overcame their own lack of discipline in allowing the Capitals seven power-play opportunities.

T.J. Oshie scored on consecutive power-play opportunities five minutes apart in the second period for Washington.

“I think we just give them breath,” Alex Ovechkin said. “That goal at the end (of the second period) obviously give them a little breath. But in the third period we can’t start like that.”

Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots for the Islanders, who eliminated the Florida Panthers in four games of their best-of-five preliminary round series last week.

The Metropolitan Division champion Capitals were coming off a sluggish performance in a preliminary round-robin tournament in which they finished 1-1-1, managed just five goals and closed with a 2-1 win over Boston on Sunday.

“We just move on,” Ovechkin said. “Nothing you can do right now. We just going to learn from our mistakes.”

Carlson had two assists in returning after missing three preliminary-round games with an injury and Holtby stopped 23 shots.