At the Horn |  Islanders 4 - Sabres 3

Dylan Cozens scored his first goal of the season, and Tage Thompson extended his point streak to eight games, but the Buffalo Sabres fell 4-3 to the New York Islanders on Friday night at KeyBank Center.

Cozens, Jason Zucker and Owen Power scored for the Sabres while Thompson, Zucker (1+1), Rasmus Dahlin, Bowen Byram (0+2) and Ryan McLeod notched assists. Devon Levi made his fourth start of the season and stopped 32 shots in the loss.

Bo Horvat, Maxim Tsyplakov, Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Islanders, and Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves on 35 shots.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The two teams got on the board within a span of 40 seconds midway through the period, beginning with a power-play goal from Cozens at the 9:03 mark. Dahlin took a shot from the point that deflected off Sorokin’s pad to Zucker, who poked it to Cozens as he jetted in from the left faceoff circle to knock it in.

New York responded 40 seconds later when a backhanded pass from Lee went past four Sabres defenders to Horvat, who buried his backhand attempt on a breakawy.

Second Period

Tsyplakov had a hand in two goals during the period, which sent the Islanders into the intermission with a 3-1 lead.

Tysplakov scored the go-ahead goal at the 5:25 mark, deking toward the slot on the rush and sending a wrist shot past Levi. He sent a pass through the crease to set up Palmieri's goal on the power play to extend the lead with 7:40 remaining.

The Islanders went down to four defensemen during the period. They lost Adam Pelech when he took a shot to the face with 12:53 remaining, then lost Mike Reilly to injury following a legal hit against the boards by Jordan Greenway with 10:46 on the clock. Reilly remained down on the ice for a period of time but was able to leave for the dressing room with the help of teammates.

Third Period

The Sabres attempted to mount a comeback in the third period but despite narrowing the deficit to one twice during the period, the Islanders came out on top.

After drawing a penalty shot and getting shut down by Sorokin’s left pad, Zucker deflected a Thompson shot past the Islanders goaltender to cut the score to 3-2.

Pageau doubled the Islanders lead once again when a shot by Lee bounced off the end-boards and onto his stick in front of the net.

With 1:01 remaining in the game, and the Sabres net empty, Power capitalized to bring the Sabres within one goal.

GAME PHOTOS

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

POSTGAME SOUND

UP NEXT

Buffalo is back in action tomorrow night in Detroit against the Red Wings. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR550.