Capitals lose again to Islanders, fail to gain in Metropolitan

ELMONT, N.Y. --The Washington Capitals failed to move into third place in the Metropolitan Division when they lost their second straight game to the New York Islanders, 5-1 at UBS Arena on Thursday.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored, and Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves for the Capitals (44-25-12), who also lost 4-1 to the Islanders on Tuesday and went 0-for-6 on the power play without Alex Ovechkin, who missed his second straight game because of an upper-body injury.
Washington, which will conclude its regular season against the New York Rangers on Friday, remained in the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan.
"Special teams didn't go our way tonight," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "It seemed like we had a lot of good looks, but we couldn't get to the interior. They are a tight team defensively and generated some chances 5-on-5. That was the difference in the game."
Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, Mathew Barzal had three assists, and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves for the Islanders (37-34-10), who went 3-for-5 on the power play.

New York will wrap up its season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.
"It doesn't matter if it was Tampa Bay or Columbus, Washington or Philadelphia, it's another team and it's a game we have to try to win, and we will do that," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said.
Brock Nelson gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 10:48 of the first period with a one-timer from the right face-off circle on a power play.
Anders Lee scored another power-play goal at 15:34 when he redirected Barzal's shot from above the circles to make it 2-0.
"We didn't play a good game," Jonsson-Fjallby said. "They were faster than us and had a lot of odd-man rushes. We had a lot of shots but didn't score."

Varlamov made 13 saves in the second in what was likely his final start of the season. Ilya Sorokin is expected to start Friday.
"'Varly' played really solid," Trotz said. "I really wished that he would've gotten a shutout tonight. He deserved it, he played really solid. His rebound control was really solid. He had a couple of in-tight looks that he made look very easy, which is telling you that he's playing pretty well. It was good for him to get a good win to end the season."
Jean-Gabriel Pageau extended the lead to 3-0 with a wrist shot from the left circle at 3:44 of the third period shortly after New York killed a four-minute power play.
Kyle Palmieri one-timed a feed from Bailey for a power-play goal at 6:23 to make it 4-0, and Bailey then scored on a backhand at 13:37 push it to 5-0.
"We're certainly not going to give up," Bailey said. "You want to end things on the right note, regardless of the situation you're in. That's what we intend to do, at least to go out and give a good effort every night. I think we owe it to the fans. Their support this year has been like every other year."

Jonsson-Fjallby ended Varlamov's shutout bid with 42 seconds left for the 5-1 final.
"We knew they would be working hard," Washington forward Anthony Mantha said. "We will get back on the train. We need to have a great game tomorrow and finish strong."
NOTES:Laviolette said Ovechkin, who participated in the morning skate, "had a good day" and will be reevaluated Friday. … Jonsson-Fjallby played 10:14 in his first game since March 28. … Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson had two assists, giving him 50 points (13 goals, 37 assists) this season. … Palmieri's goal was the 200th of his NHL career. … Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier played 15:27 after missing four games because of an upper-body injury. … New York defenseman Ryan Pulock did not play because of a non-COVID-19 illness. Nelson and defenseman Zdeno Chara returned after missing the game Tuesday due to the same illness.