In Elmont, the Islanders handed the visiting Edmonton Oilers their third straight loss on Tuesday night, as the new coach aura has seemingly worn off the Oilers.
The Isles scored three times in the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit, for a 3-1 final score.
“There was a lot of commitment to winning,” the Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “That commitment means winning your battles, clearing the puck or blocking shots, and you saw a lot of that tonight.”
Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves in the win.
The Isles scored two power play goals and a shorthanded marker in the middle frame.
“I thought we were resilient,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “We had to move some people around, mixed the lines around on a consistent basis because of the fact that we weren’t trying to tax people too much. All the forwards did a good job. I thought our defense played well, but I thought our forwards did a good job of trying to manage their ice time.”
New York improved to 15-8-8
Leon Draisaitl staked the Oilers to a 1-0 lead with 83 seconds gone in the opening stanza.
The Oilers dropped to 13-15-1off their third straight loss.
“[Special teams] was the main culprit,” Edmonton’s Derek Ryan said. “I thought we played a little sloppy in the second, some turnovers in the neutral zone, and (we) let the game get away from us a little bit there. But obviously, special teams were a major difference.”
In the middle frame, it was all special teams for the Islanders.
Anders Lee connected off the power play at 2:39 to tie the game, 1-1.
Bo Horvat added a second power play strike at 11:30 for a 2-1 advantage to the Islanders.
“You’re just hoping that he finds you. You kind of feel like in that moment you have empty space, and you’re just trying to find the hole, and Nelson made a heck of a play to get it over to me,” Horvat said. “I didn’t have much time at all anywhere out there. I felt the puck on my stick. I wanted to get it off as quick as possible, not only for the guys around me, but I didn’t want to allow the goaltender to get over. So thankfully it went in.”
Simon Holmstrom potted a shorthanded marker at 14:10 of the second for a 3-1 lead, and final count.
“It was great from everyone, from the goalie to our defensemen,” Pageau said. “Everyone chipped in. The power play scored two big goals. We did a great job to kill that 5-on-3. [Casey] Cizikas was outstanding. The goalie was great. I think that’s a really great team effort.”
It was his fifth shorthanded goal of the camping, that leads the NHL this season.
Stuart Skinner made 18 saves in the loss.
“We spent a lot of time in the offensive zone. I think to score in this league, or any league for that matter, is to go hard to the net,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I don’t think we had enough traffic in front of their goaltender. I thought our puck play was good. We have to get more bodies around their goaltender.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.