3 Takeaways: Isles Let Lead Slip in 5-4 Loss to Devils

The New York Islanders six-game point streak came to a close on Tuesday night, as the Isles fell 5-4 to the New Jersey Devils in regulation at Prudential Center.

Mathew Barzal (1G, 2A), Bo Horvat (PPG), Cal Clutterbuck and JG Pageau had the Islanders up 4-2 heading into the third period, but the Devils roared back to upend the Isles in regulation. Jack Hughes led the Devils with a three-point night (1G, 2A) and kickstarted the third period comeback that also saw Nico Hischier score and Curtis Lazar (1G, 1A) eventually win it with 23 seconds to play. Dawson Mercer and Michael McLeod each had a goal and an assist in the Devils win.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 of 33 shots in the loss while Akira Schmid stopped all eight shots he saw in relief. Vitek Vanecek started the game and made 14 saves on 18 shots before getting pulled midway through the contest.  

The loss was the Islanders first in regulation since Nov. 13 and also marked their second defeat against the Devils this season (0-1-1) this season.

ISLES LET TWO-GOAL LEAD SLIP AWAY IN THIRD PERIOD:

There was no sugarcoating Tuesday’s result in the Islanders locker room post game.

“This one stings,” Head Coach Lane Lambert said. “This one stings bad.”

Tuesday marked the seventh time the Islanders had lost a two-goal lead this season, and while they’d managed to at least get a point in the previous six games, that was not the case in New Jersey.

The third period followed an all-too familiar trend for the Islanders this season, who allowed three third period tallies for the fifth time this season and fourth time in the past 14 games. It started with Hughes skating in undetected and whipping his seventh of the season short side on Sorokin at the 5:08 mark to give the Devils life.

“They got some momentum and we were unable to kind of stop it,” Noah Dobson said. “They get one late. It sucks, but we have to get ready for the next one.”

Penalties – which have also behooved the Islanders in third periods this season – reared their ugly head again midway through the period as the Isles saw their own power play turn into a four-on-three penalty kill and eventually Hischier’s tying goal at 11:10. The Isles own the league’s 31^st ranked penalty kill and were going up against the league’s top-ranked power play on Tuesday.

“That's our kryptonite right now,” Horvat said. “We could easily have a lot of these games and our record could be a lot better if we just out of the box and get kills at the right time and we just didn't do it again tonight.”

The gut punch came with 23 seconds to play, as Lazar’s swipe at the puck caromed off Alex Romanov and past Sorokin to send the Islanders home empty-handed. Tuesday marked the Islanders first regulation loss when leading after two periods (7-1-3) and marked the Devils first (1-6-0) when trailing after two. Given the closeness of the Metropolitan Division standings, where five points separate second from seventh, it was a costly loss and undid what was a solid 40 minutes to that point.

“Obviously we'd like to get that one into overtime and get a point, but that one is on us for letting them come back like that,” Horvat said.

BARZAL HAS THREE POINTS, PAGEAU NETS FIRST GOAL:

Offensively, Mathew Barzal was all over the ice on Tuesday night, picking up three points (1G, 2A) in the win. Barzal’s three-point game was the 23^rd of his career and first since Feb. 9 against Vancouver.

Barzal had the secondary helper on Bo Horvat’s power-play one-timer to open the scoring, hit a post and drew a penalty in the first period. In the second, Barzal showed off his stickhandling before snapping a shot low glove on Vitek Vanecek on a breakaway at 8:24. As nice as the goal was, perhaps his best play was his touch pass across the slot backdoor to Jean-Gabriel Pageau, giving Pageau an open net to score his first of the season.

That was the positive of the ledger for Barzal, who also took a hooking penalty to negate the Islanders power play in the third period, which led to Simon Holmstrom’s tripping call to put the Isles down four-on-three.

As for Pageau, the center scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday, jumping off the bench and into the play during an Islanders possession in the offensive zone. The Devils did not pick up Pageau, but Barzal did, touching a backdoor feed across the slot for the easy tap-in.

While Pageau’s face clearly showed relief and exuberance in the moment, the French-Canadian said he’d have traded the personal stat in for a team win.

“[The goal] is not really what I’m thinking about right now to be honest,” Pageau said. “I like when we're winning. That one stings.”

LINE CHANGES:

Lane Lambert mixed up his lines for Tuesday’s game, swapping Anders Lee and Simon Holmstrom’s assignments. Lee skated alongside Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal, looking to give that line some net front presence, while Holmstrom was reunited with JG Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom. Lee finished the game with an assist and a fighting major, dropping the gloves with Brendan Smith.

Matt Martin was activated off IR, but did not dress on Tuesday, missing his sixth consecutive game.

Mike Reilly also made his Islanders debut on Tuesday, skating 10:42 on a pairing with Grant Hutton, while Samuel Bolduc came out of the lineup. Reilly finished with three shots on goal, six total attempts, one hit, one blocked shot and was minus-two.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders road trip continues in Raleigh on Thursday night when the Isles take on the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.