At The Final Horn: Sabres 2 - Islanders 5

The Buffalo Sabres played three games in a row against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum this weekend. All three games ended the same way: with a 5-2 Islanders victory.
Buffalo fell to 0-6-0 against the Islanders this season with Sunday's loss. The Sabres are 0-4-0 on their current five-game road trip, 0-6-1 over the last seven games and 2-10-1 since returning from a COVID-related two-week pause.
On Sunday, it was Anders Lee - who has six goals in six games against Buffalo this year - and Brock Nelson who scored for the Islanders in a span of 1:02 in the second period. Casey Cizikas scored later on in the second and Cal Clutterbuck added a fourth midway through the third. Nelson added his second goal when he dumped the puck into an empty net late in the third.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 25 Sabres shots.
Jonas Johansson made 25 saves for Buffalo.
Jeff Skinner scored his first goal of the season, roofing a backhand shot on a wraparound to make it 3-1 in the third period. Colin Miller added another for his third of the season to put Buffalo within one before Clutterbuck iced the game.
Buffalo is 0-13-1 this season when trailing after two periods.

What happened

Buffalo was outshot 8-5 in the first period, but they played a good 20 minutes of hockey to keep the game 0-0 after 20. The Islanders, however, came out strong in the second and scored twice.
Lee tallied just as an Islanders power play expired 5:13 into the second. He gained position in front of the net and redirected in a pass from Jordan Eberle.
Then just over a minute later, Nelson took a shot from the slot that beat Johansson up top.
The Islanders scored their third goal of the period when Cizikas scored with 3:04 remaining in the period, finishing off a great feed from Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
Skinner scored his first goal since February 29, 2020 - a span of 24 games - at the 5:41 mark of the third period. He now has a goal and an assist on the season. His assist came back on January 22.
Buffalo got within one when Miller wristed one in from the right halfwall 9:35 into the third.
New York regained their two-goal edge when Clutterbuck scored on a backhand all alone in front with 7:03 remaining.
With 2:12 left, Nelson scored again, this time into an empty net.

Roll the highlight film

We have Skinner's goal for you here:

Worth mentioning

Before the game, the Sabres made a few roster moves. Forward Casey Mittelstadt and Brandon Davidson were added to the active roster from the taxi squad. Defenseman Henri Jokiharju was loaned to the taxi squad.
Mittelstadt skated 15:03 with an assist and Davidson played 17:24.
Jokiharju, who appeared in every game for the Sabres last season, was scratched Saturday and has played in 17 of the team's 23 games this season. He was acquired in a trade with Chicago during the 2019 offseason. He had suited up for 38 games with the Blackhawks in 2018-19.
"We do see this as the sophomore season for him," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said before the game. "We did expect that he would possibly want to be doing more and get more active and more involved than he was last year and I think his strength lies in his ability to solve under pressure, to maintain possession for the group and to play a simple game from the inside out.
"It's part of the development for a young defenseman to come in and be very conservative and then try to build a more attacking offensive game on top of that. … Let's not overvalue this. This kid is an important part of our future. We love the foundation that he has."

Coming up

The five-game road trip concludes Tuesday night when the Sabres venture to Philadelphia to face the Flyers. Faceoff from Wells Fargo Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG begins at 6:30.
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