The New York Islanders went winless in their two games played this week. They lost to the Kraken in a shootout at UBS Arena and to the Rangers in overtime at the Stadium Series in MetLife Stadium. The two points gained puts them at 58 total for the season. The Islanders now have a 22-18-14 record this year.
For the first of their two games this week, the Islanders hosted the Seattle Kraken. The Kraken were playing in the second game of a back-to-back, but that was hard to notice in the early going of this game. They had a lot more energy than the Islanders, and put a lot of pressure on them. The only damage done by the Kraken offense was in the first period of this game. After taking a hard hit from Ryan Pulock, Matty Beniers got up and found himself in a great position. He took a pass that came from the Islanders offensive zone and had a clear lane to the net. Beniers buried the game’s opening goal and the Kraken’s only regulation goal.
The Islanders had no response until the second period. After fumbling a four minute penalty in the first, the Islanders got their second opportunity on the man advantage. Mat Barzal set up Kyle Palmieri with a pass from behind the net to score the game-tying power play goal. Neither Ilya Sorokin nor Philipp Grubauer, who had just returned from injury, could be beaten throughout the rest of regulation. The game went to overtime and eventually to a shootout. The Islanders went 0/3 in the shootout, while Tomas Tatar scored the one and only shootout goal for the Kraken. The Islanders got a free point but played a very disappointing game in the 2-1 shootout loss.
On Sunday, the Islanders played in the long-awaited Stadium Series matchup against the New York Rangers at MetLife Stadium. The game featured special jerseys, appearances from New York Jets players, New York Giants players, and several alumni from both teams, as well as an intermission concert from AJR. It was a special occasion for both clubs as well as the reignition of a decades-long rivalry. This would mark the first time these bitter rivals played in over a year, making this meeting long overdue. Both teams were looking for two important points while playing on a grand stage in front of over 79,000 fans.
The Rangers got off to a quick start, with Erik Gustafsson scoring just 1:28 into the contest. But the Islanders took control of the period after the game’s opening goal. Brock Nelson got a great look against Igor Shesterkin and tied the game just minutes later. Then, while playing four-on-four, Bo Horvat snapped in the go-ahead goal at the 7:18 mark. Lastly, Barzal tipped in a power play goal 16 seconds after Horvat’s goal to take a 3-1 lead.
Anders Lee gave the Islanders a three-goal advantage when he drilled in the team’s second power play goal of the game early into the second. Despite the big advantage, this game was far from over. Vincent Trocheck delivered a power play goal and an even strength goal for the Rangers in the second period, setting up a one-goal game in the third. Alex Romanov got the first goal of the third period, giving the Islanders a 5-3 lead down the final stretch. Having a multiple goal lead late into the game, some penalty trouble completely turned the tide in this one.
A tripping penalty to Barzal led to Chris Kreider deflecting in a power play goal. Then, Scott Mayfield’s third penalty of the game setup Mika Zibanejad to score the game-tying power play goal from a tough angle. This brought the game to overtime, which ended rather quickly. An ugly turnover from Noah Dobson right in front of Ilya Sorokin gave Artemi Panarin a golden opportunity to score the game-winning goal. Another in a long list of blown third period leads led to a 6-5 Islanders loss to the Rangers in the Stadium Series.
3 Stars of the Week
1. Noah Dobson (4 assists, on four-game point streak)
2. Mat Barzal (PPG, assist)
3. Kyle Palmieri (Game-tying PPG against Kraken, team’s only goal of game)
Featured image courtesy of NHL.com
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