from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

They were on the verge of saying goodbye to America before they could even properly introduce themselves.

But on this Friday night under the Edmonton bubble and in front of the national audience that obviously had not been especially impressed by the team’s close-up in Games 1 or 2 of the Eastern finals, the Islanders said hello.

Of course they did. What else would you expect?

“All you have to do is look at the amount of time we’ve put into this whole process,” Cal Clutterbuck said after the 5-3 empty-net aided victory. “I just think the way the guys are, the way that we are, I don’t think that packing it in is really a part of this team.”

Easy for No. 15 to say on a night the Islanders played their most assertive and confident hockey of the series, but still gave back the 3-1 lead they’d earned through the second period by allowing a pair of goals within the first 12:04 of the third, Ondrej Palat scoring early on a power play before Tyler Johnson scored the tying goal.

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