In Elmont, the New York Islanders lost a valuable two points on Saturday night in a 5-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. 
After Pierre Engvall scored to the Isles a 1-0 lad in the first period, the Caps replied with two in the first for a 2-1 advantage and three in the third stanza to cruise to the win.
“I think it was the most complete team game, where everyone was pitching in and everyone’s pulling on the rope, as we like to say here,” Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said. “If we [have] more games like that, more complete games as a team, we might be right there at the end.”
Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves in the Caps win.
Washington improved to 32-28-7 after snapping a two-game skid.
Dylan Strome and Oshie scored in the first period to give the Caps a 2-1 advantage coming out of the first period.
The Isles dropped to 34-26-8 and had a five-game point streak ended in the loss.
“I don’t think we got to the net nearly good enough,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “We had 39 shot attempts that were either blocked or missed the net, plus I thought we passed up some shots as well.”
The loss also permitted the Florida Panthers to close to within three points of the Islanders for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference; the Panthers gained a loser’s point in an OT loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
New York went scoreless in five power play chances.
“Certainly on a night like that you need your power play to get you going,” Lambert said. “Obviously, we didn’t generate a whole lot on the power play. Little bit of trouble breaking the pucks out, and I didn’t think we were crisp and sharp.”
Anthony Mantha scored in the third period to extend the Caps lad to 3-1.
Nic Dowd then pushed the lead to 4-1 for Washington.
“It was good to get that first goal right away, and then the second one and then pull away in the third,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was a good win, probably our best one in a while.”
Nicklas Backstrom scored for the 5-1 final on a tip in of a shot from Rasmus Sandin .
“I think I just feel confident,” Sandin said. “I’m getting a very big opportunity from the coaches, and I feel like they really believe in me. … I’m just super excited to be here and just having a lot of fun out there.”
Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves in the Islanders loss.
“We didn’t create a whole lot tonight,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “And then 2-1 going into the third, and it just got away from us. Trying to press, and a couple mistakes we made tonight ended up in the back of our net.”
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