The New York Islanders went 1-2 in their three games played this week. They suffered a pair of bad losses to the Canucks at home and the Predators on the road. Their one win of the week came in an overtime game against the Maple Leafs at home. The Islanders have a 19-13-10 record and 48 points on the season.
Tuesday night saw the Islanders host the Vancouver Canucks for their second meeting of the season. The Islanders did not manage to get off to the strong start that they did during the road meeting. The Canucks dominated play to start, in what would be a trend throughout this game. The visitors opened up the scoring at the 16:25 mark of the first period. That was when Filip Hronek scored on a play where Casey Cizikas was down and injured after blocking a previous shot from Hronek. The Canucks went up 2-0 when Quinn Hughes danced right through a group of defending Islanders to get a good look against Ilya Sorokin.
Elias Pettersson put his team up by three goals in the second period after a defensive zone turnover. One of the only bright spots in this game was via the Islanders power play unit. Some nifty passing led to Brock Nelson cutting the deficit down to two goals. But Tyler Meyers got the lead back up to three on a big slap shot. Nelson again scored in the third period, but the Islanders couldn’t mount any kind of comeback. An empty net goal from Dakota Joshua capped off a 5-2 Islanders loss to the Canucks.
The next game saw the Islanders host the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time this season. After Tuesday’s disaster and an injury to Cizikas, the team underwent a significant shakeup of their usual lines. Unlike Tuesday, the Islanders came out of the gates strong. Kyle Palmieri got the game’s opening goal just 40 seconds into the contest. However, things started to take a turn later in the first when Bobby McMann tied the game.
In the second, Auston Matthews scored a pair of goals within the first three minutes of the period to give the Maple Leafs a 3-1 lead. Despite the tough start to the period, Alex Romanov snapped a shot past Martin Jones to regain some momentum. Then, at the 13:51 mark of the period, Bo Horvat capitalized on a power play opportunity to tie the game. Both teams went scoreless in the third, bringing about the second straight overtime affair between the two teams. In similar fashion to the first meeting, the Islanders took care of business in short order. Off of a faceoff win, Noah Dobson sent a perfect pass to Mat Barzal in front of the net, who punched in the game-winning goal. The Islanders completed a two-goal comeback for a 4-3 overtime victory.
The Islanders’ last game of the week took place in Nashville against the Predators as part of a four-game road trip. The first two periods of this game were very quiet from an offensive standpoint. Sorokin and Juuse Saros were on their games and didn’t let anything up until the third period of this one. J.G. Pageau got the game’s first goal at the 12:00 mark of the third, tipping in a shot from Dobson. Shortly after, the Predators received a power play opportunity and got the game-tying goal from the stick of Luke Evangelista. As this game seemed to be heading for an overtime period, disaster struck the Islanders.
In the final seconds of the period, Matt Martin turned the puck over in the defensive zone. The puck eventually got to Alexandre Carrier, who ripped a slap shot and got the go-ahead goal with just eight seconds remaining in the game. An empty netter from Juuso Parssinen sealed an embarrassing 3-1 loss to the Predators, in which the team cost themselves a free point against a Western Conference team. This is also the second time the Islanders have given up a game-winning goal with under 30 seconds left in regulation. They did so on the road against the New Jersey Devils earlier in the season.
1. Mat Barzal (GWG vs. Maple Leafs and 4 assists)
2. Noah Dobson (5 assists including primary assist on GWG vs. Maple Leafs)
3. Brock Nelson (PPG and 5v5 goal vs. Canucks)
Featured image courtesy of NHL.com
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