With plenty of time to mentally prepare for his second NHL start, Mikko Koskinen bounced back from a 5-3 loss in his debut and stopped 37 shots, plus all four shootout attempts, to defeat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, on Thursday night. In the shootout, Koskinen stopped Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and then Beniot Pouliot before Kyle Okposo finally beat Alex Auld to clinch the come-from-behind victory.

While the Islanders were trailing 2-1 late in the second period, Koskinen made his most timely save of the game when he robbed James Wisniewski with a diving glove stop on a wide-open chance along the goal line. Just over a minute later, Michael Grabner scored at 17:10 to tie the game 2-2. Koskinen would give up a goal shortly thereafter to Plekanec at 18:08, but the confidence gained from the highlight-reel save kept his focus honed long enough to stop all 10 shots he faced in the third period, one more in overtime, and then all four shootout attempts.

GOAL 1 - Max Pacioretty scored at 14:40 on a one-timer from one knee during a 4-on-4 situation. Koskinen slid right to left but couldn’t locate the puck in time to cleanly react with his hands. He was caught in a “blocking” mode and didn’t have a strong enough push coming across.

GOAL 2 - Benoit Pouliot’s wrist shot beat Koskinen five-hole at 5:49. The shot came from below the faceoff dot and just inside the right post. Koskinen had a chance to freeze the puck earlier in the sequence, but it hit his glove and bounced out. That allowed the Habs to continue cycling the puck down low, which ultimately led to Pouliot’s scoring chance.

GOAL 3 - Koskinen was beat five-hole by Plekanec at 18:08 on a fast two-on-one rush. Plekanec looked off Koskinen as if he was going to make the pass across, waited for the defenseman to commit by dropping down and then fired a sneaky wrist shot along the ice that beat Mikko clean.

+ In the extra frame, he made a tremendous reaction glove save on Gomez with under 10 seconds left to push the game into a shootout. Below I quickly break down the four saves he made in the shootout. Be sure to watch the game highlights below in order to see how he clinches his first NHL victory.

GIONTA - Koskinen made a great save pushing to his right on Gionta’s backhand chance. The puck looked to hit him low on one of his thigh rises or somewhere in the crotch of his pants. Mikko was very patient with the lateral push.

PACIORETTY - Max missed up high over the glove side. Koskinen challenged very well and was not fooled by Max’s slow approach. He adjusted his backward speed to that of Max’s and then went down on one knee to seal the lower portion of the ice.

PLEKANEC - Tomas came in and changed his speed at the mid-point, swung a little wide to the left, then cut in to the middle from Koskinen’s right side and shot back against the grain to the blocker side. Koskinen displayed more solid patience, widened his stance as Plekanec dipped into the middle and reacted in time to have the shot hit him on the right arm.

POULIOT - Koskinen doesn’t bite on Benoit’s first deke, then he did a great job of stretching to his right with a nice reflex save. Mikko also showed solid stick position, as it led slightly in front of his push and eliminated the five-hole.

+ A major key to Koskinen’s success in this game was his ability to relax and make some early saves. The ability to prepare mentally for the game also allowed him to eliminate a lot of tension and nerves and simply focus on the puck. He was much more acclimated to the speed and pace of the game, which also acted as an enormous boost to his confidence and composure. All of those mental elements came together to form a very solid outing and a number of timely saves that ultimately helped his team come from behind and win in the shootout.

+ Another aspect of Koskinen’s success was his ability to economize movements and sustain energy throughout the full 65 minutes. No matter which way you slice it, a strong state of mind will lead to having stronger levels of energy. The save he made on Wisniewski late in the second period resulted in a huge boost of confidence, and therefore energy, as the game went along.

+ Many times in this game, Koskinen’s ability to move quickly despite having such a large frame was on display. This is one of the main reasons why I consider him such a promising prospect with very high upside. Whether the shots came from in tight or he was able to set his feet and had adequate time to prepare to make the save, he moved quickly and recovered with sound mechanics. I even saw him use the “pop-up” technique on two or three occassions – something that is not easy for such a big body to execute effectively.

+ Weak rebound control after making reaction toe saves almost cost him a goal on four or five occasions in this game. But his ability to scramble and use active hands or his shoulders to deflect or tip second opportunities was strong. Again, it displayed his quickness despite having such a large frame.

+ Overall, this win was a terrific bounce-back effort for Koskinen, something that really displays the kind of mental toughness he has after being thrown into such a difficult situation. It was also a great lesson on the importance of being mentally prepared. The amount of experience Koskinen gained in these two games, and for the rest of his recall with the Islanders, will go a very long way in boosting his confidence and understanding of the NHL game.