GAME RECAP: Islanders 3, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB – Leon Draisaitl notched his 13th goal of the season, but the Edmonton Oilers dropped to their third consecutive defeat on Tuesday night after netminder Ilya Sorokin made 31 saves on 32 shots in a 3-1 victory for the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.

Sorokin allowed the first shot of the game to Draisaitl in the opening two minutes of the match before settling in and stopping the next 31 shots he faced – including all 15 saves in the third period after the Oilers outshot the Islanders 15-3 over the final 20 minutes.

The Oilers allowed two power-play goals and a short-handed tally from Simon Holmstrom as part of a three-goal second period from the Islanders, who have now recorded a point in nine straight at home (6-0-3) and improved to 13-1-2 on home ice against Edmonton since 2000-01.

"Unfortunately, that was the name of the game," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. "We lost the special teams battle tonight, and we've got to better as a penalty-kill unit. We've got to be better as a power play unit as well, so that's on us. We need points right now, so we'll have to learn from that and be better."

The Blue & Orange continue their three-game NYC road trip on Thursday night with the first leg of their first back-to-back of the season against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.

"We can control what we can control and that's the next game," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "It's disappointing. We certainly could've had two of our last three, and I think the next two games are going to be very difficult for us. But certainly, we can put this game behind us and get ready for New Jersey."

FIRST PERIOD

It took only 83 seconds for Coach Knoblauch's shuffle to his top-six forwards during the last two practices to provide early returns on Long Island.

Draisaitl hadn't scored an even-strength goal in 10 games before being paired up on the second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Warren Foegele following a top-six shuffle by the coaching staff focused on creating balance in the lineup with no last change on this three-game road trip.

The German accepted a pass from Foegele with speed in the neutral zone before walking over the blueline and wiring his 13th goal of the campaign under the left arm of Ilya Sorokin at 18:37 of the first period, who made a career-high 49 saves in a 3-0 shutout of the Oilers last season.

It was the Oilers league-leading sixth goal inside the first two minutes of games this season, contributing to another fast start for the Blue & Orange where they carried the play early at five-on-five, but couldn't crack Sorokin again over the remaining 58:23 of regulation

"I thought we made a good lot of good puck decisions, spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, so we weren't giving it away," Knoblauch said. "I think to score in this league, or any league for that matter, you just have to go to the net hard. I don't think we had enough traffic in front of the goaltender. I thought puck play was good, but I think we have to get more bodies around the blue paint."

Stuart Skinner was making his first career start on Long Island and bailed out his teammates with less than three minutes left in the first when he turned away Mat Barzal on a breakaway with the blocker.

The Islanders centre had recorded the fourth-most points in the NHL since Nov. 13 with 23 points in 16 games prior to puck drop, while Connor McDavid was second with 31 over 15 games – including a 12-game point streak that ended on Tuesday night.

SECOND PERIOD

If you look back at Edmonton's eight-game winning streak, it was a rare sight to see their special teams get bested.

On Tuesday night, an even-strength tally had Edmonton ahead through 20 minutes, but it was both sides of their own special teams that would cost them.

"You look at our winning streak during that eight games and we never lost a special teams battle, and it so often comes down to that," Knoblauch said. "I thought five on five we out-chanced them, spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, and this was one of the nights where we got beat on the special teams, which doesn't usually happen."

A slash from Sam Gagner on Simon Holstrom in the first three minutes set the Isles up with their first-man advantage of the night and began a frustrating frame for the Oilers where they'd concede twice on the penalty kill before having a power play of their own backfire before the break.

Anders Lee cleaned up a loose puck that squeaked behind Skinner on the Islanders' first man advantage before Bo Horvat pushed his point streak to 11 games by finishing Brock Nelson's stellar pass on their next power-play opportunity with 9:30 left in the period.

When Edmonton did get the opportunity to respond with the man advantage soon after, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' errant pass led to a 2-on-1 for the Islanders that was finished off by Holmstrom for his league-leading fifth shorthanded goal that put the Islanders up 3-1 with 5:50 left in the middle frame.

New York's penalty kill was operating at a league-low 70.2 percent efficiency coming into Tuesday's game, but they've been dangerous going the other way with eight total shorties.

That tally put the pressure on Edmonton's power play to convert a 5-on-3 that came 33 seconds after they fell behind by a pair of goals when McDavid was held back by Robert Bortuzzo, but nothing would come of the two-man advantage. The Oilers finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play.

"I think they did a really good job," Knoblauch said of the Islanders' penalty kill. "I don't want to take any credit away from them, but I think there are nights where we go 0-for-4 and we just can't score, and tonight probably looking back, we'll want some of our plays back and do things a little bit differently.

"But I think early on, we had some real key opportunities to shoot the puck, which we did, and I think they came up with some big blocks."

THIRD PERIOD

Another night, another hard-to-beat Russian goaltender.

After Sorokin was beaten on the first shot of the night by Draisaitl, the Isles netminder settled in to make the next 31 saves to put in the third straight stellar performance from a Russian shot-stopper against the Oilers that's helped contribute to their three consecutive defeats.

The Islanders didn't register a shot until the 1:37 mark of the third period as Edmonton poured the pressure on Sorokin, but they weren't able to solve the netminder who's now stopped 79-of-80 shots in his last two victories on home ice over the Oilers after giving up three goals on 31 shots in Edmonton this past month.

"I'm thinking about the scoring chances we had early in the first period where Leon scores first. That was a nice play," Knoblauch said. "The defenceman making the pass forward, bumping it back to him, and then we had some chances to go up 2-0.

"I think if we're up two goals, it just makes that game a lot easier – especially the way New York plays is very tight checking and once they have the lead, it's tough to score against these guys, but I liked our guys' effort. There was no quit and with some breaks, maybe it's a different result. "

PARTING WORDS

Ekholm on staying even-keeled during this three-game losing run:

"That's exactly what we need to do right now. As much as tonight is no fun and it sucks, we've got to turn the page quickly and move on. We have two more games before Christmas and those are crucial games for us. So whether you do it by yourself as a team, whatever it takes, we need to just turn our heads around, have a good practice tomorrow and then come back and play a good game again."

Ryan on the streakiness of Edmonton's last month (3W, 3L, 8W, 3L):

"Yeah, we're trying to just find that consistency for sure. I thought we played a really good game, maybe not a full 60, and it takes a full 60 to win in this league most nights."

"We're right there for sure. I thought we almost dominated five-on-five, but you could say the same about the Tampa game. At the same time, we're a process-driven group in here. We know we want to get to our game, we want to win games, but to win games you have to play the right way and we just have to do that for a full 60."