DALLAS — If not for what looked like a serious injury to Alexander Romanov in the final minute of Tuesday’s game, you would call this the best road trip the Islanders have had in a hot minute.
Their fifth win in six on a trip that saw its fourth time zone Tuesday, which snapped a five-game Stars winning streak by a 3-2 score that came in gritty, grinding fashion, confirmed as much.
Not one of those wins have come easily for the Islanders, but Tuesday was — by far — the toughest, both emotionally and on the ice itself.
Kyle Palmieri scores a third-period goal during the Islanders’ 3-2 road win over the Stars on Nov. 18, 2025. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
There was the matter of their play, which started bad and slowly got better.
There was a 10-minute misconduct assessed to Bo Horvat. And there was a final minute of play that featured Romanov’s injury and what looked for a brief second like the tying goal scored by the Stars at the buzzer — before that was wiped off for goaltender interference, saving two points for the Islanders.
The injury — which came on a brazenly illegal hit from Mikko Rantanen, who drove Romanov head-first into the end boards, with the defenseman needing help off the ice — cast a shadow over the postgame dressing room.
Coach Patrick Roy had words for Rantanen as he left the ice after being assessed a five-minute boarding major and a 10-minute game misconduct, and added some more afterward, saying such a play “should not be a part of our game.”
“That’s scary stuff,” Anders Lee said. “Game’s fast, game’s heavy. It happens sometimes. You just hate to see it. Doesn’t matter when. Just hoping he’s doing all right right now.”
Aside from making clear that Romanov did not need to go to the hospital, there was no update on his status from the Islanders.
Mikko Rantanen (96) is called for a game misconduct penalty for boarding on Alexander Romanov (28) during the third period of the Islanders’ road loss to the Stars. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
And after things calmed down from the injury, they still had 27.3 seconds over which to defend a tenuous 3-2 lead.
They defended it for 27.2 seconds, and then Wyatt Johnston poked in a rebound that appeared to add another heartbreak onto the night for the Islanders.
After a review, it was determined that Jason Robertson had interfered with David Rittich, so a rule that Roy has often derided — including on this very trip — finally interceded on his behalf.
“I felt like I bumped him a little bit, [but] I felt like he was already in on the goalie before we made a little bit of contact,” Ryan Pulock, who was tied up with Robertson in front of the net, told The Post. “Obviously he took the goalie right out.”
David Rittich makes a save during the Islanders’ road win over the Stars. AP
Once you got past a hectic final minute, the rest of the game marked a feather in the Islanders’ cap.
Early in the night, they managed the puck poorly, played far too much east/west and couldn’t seem to get through the neutral zone. As it went on, they solved the problem in real time, then gutted out a trio of penalty kills for good measure.
You could see in Cal Ritchie’s opening goal — No. 64’s first as an Islander, a one-timer from the low slot off Anthony Duclair’s feed — the Islanders beginning to work through their issues. So too in their response to Robertson’s 1-1 goal, which came on a three-on-one rush that followed a Tony DeAngelo turnover a few minutes later.
Calum Ritchie celebrates after scoring a second-period goal during the Islanders’ road win over the Stars. AP
By the third period, when the game’s decisive notes were played, they were in the dogfight fully — and there would have been no winning this otherwise.
Just 3:12 into the final period, Horvat got the greasy goal the Islanders needed, cleaning up the garbage on Kyle Palmieri’s rebound.
Horvat appeared to give the Stars a window back into the game when he caught Oskar Bäck with a high stick a few minutes later, and earned a 10-minute misconduct along with the double minor penalty. But instead, the Stars imploded.
Palmieri made it 3-1 on a short-handed rush on what was the league-leading fifth short-handed Islanders goal of the season.
Jamie Benn wiped out two of the four minutes with a high stick of his own, and the Islanders dutifully killed off the rest of the penalty.
“I feel our guys are playing solid hockey right now,” Roy said. “… I thought it was a hard-fought game. We played well enough to win.”
Robertson scored to pull the Stars within one with 1:59 to go. Had he been in just a slightly different position 1:58.59 later, the night may have ended very differently indeed.
