Capitals fail to gain in Metropolitan Division with loss to Islanders

WASHINGTON --The Washington Capitals failed to gain ground in the Metropolitan Division when their five-game point streak ended in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

Conor Sheary scored, and Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves for the Capitals (44-24-12), who remained one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the division with two games remaining. The Penguins have one regular-season game left after a 5-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
Washington, which has lost three of its past four games (1-1-2), played without forward Alex Ovechkin because of an upper-body injury sustained during a 4-3 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.
"We can't play like we did tonight going into the playoffs," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "This isn't who we are. This isn't our M.O. It's one night, it was lousy and so that's that."
Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves for the Islanders (36-34-10), who had lost five straight (0-4-1). They played with 11 forwards after center Brock Nelson was a late scratch because of a non-COVID-19 illness.
New York will host Washington on Thursday.
"To me it was a [heck of a] team win," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Our room is hacking and coughing and there's a lot of guys sick, and right now they're battling through it. Give them a lot of credit; I thought it was a good character win."

Sheary gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 10:24 of the first period on a redirection of Marcus Johansson's shot from the point.
Ryan Pulock tied it 1-1 at 16:18 on a slap shot from the point for a power-play goal.
New York took a 2-1 lead on a power play at 2:56 of the third period when Noah Dobson's shot from the high slot deflected in off Washington defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk.
"We talked about before the game playing the right way, doing the little things that make us successful," Pulock said. "I thought tonight we did a good job of that. PK was big, power play was big and we did good job on the puck."
The Islanders went 2-for-2 on the power play; the Capitals, without Ovechkin, were 0-for-4.
"They've been getting the job done for the most part as of late," Washington forward Tom Wilson said of the special teams. "Couple bad bounces on the PK and you know, you hope the power play can get one, but guys were in some new spots and stuff. But that being said, no excuses. We've got to find a way to capitalize when we've got an extra man out there."

Casey Cizikas made it 3-1 with an unassisted shorthanded goal at 8:42 after he scored while down on the ice after a scramble behind the Capitals net.
"I kind of saw an opportunity there where I could go and maybe create some havoc and possibly create a turnover, and all those things worked out and it ended up in the back of the net," Cizikas said.
Anders Lee scored at 15:17 on a slap shot from above the left face-off circle for the 4-1 final.
Sorokin made 14 saves in the third.
"Guys were out of sync a little bit, couldn't get much going," Wilson said. "Kind of an ugly game. Sometimes you've got to find a way to turn it around when it isn't going your way, but we just didn't really have that tonight."
NOTES: Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara also did not play because of a non-COVID-19 illness. Defenseman Robin Salo was recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis and had one shot on goal in 12:40 of ice time. … New York center Jean-Gabriel Pageau played 21:11 and won 14 of 23 faceoffs in his return after missing three games in NHL COVID-19 protocol. … Dobson has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games. … The Capitals finished 19-16-6 at home. … Sheary has a three-game point streak (two goals, two assists).