In Chicago, Oliver Wahlstrom scored two goals for the New York Islanders in a four-goal run to help defeat the Blackhawks on Tuesday night, 4-1.
Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves and lost the shutout when MacKenzie Entwistle scored with 26 seconds left on the game clock.
“I wanted him to get the shutout,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “He deserved the shutout, but we failed in the last few seconds. But he played really solid. He made the saves he needed to make and some that were timely.”
Chicago is still winless on the season, the Isles won their first.
“We probably didn’t deserve to come out on top in any of the first three games, but today if a couple of those go our way early on we feel it’s a different game,” Chicago’s Jonathan Toews said. “We’ll find that consistency as a team, we’ll settle in. Every team goes through a spurt early in the year where you’re going to have four, five, six games that don’t go your way and nothing really feels like it’s rolling downhill for you.
“It’s frustrating, no doubt. But whenever you go through that, you have a choice and the only choice for us is to keep working through it and to look for solutions to get better because of it.
After a scoreless first period, Anthony Beauvillier staked the Islanders to a 1-0 lead.
The game stayed that way until the third period when the Islanders loaded up three more strikes including Washington’s two.
“Just talking to the coaching staff before the season, just play up and down my wing and keep the game simple and get my shot off,” Wahlstrom said. “I’m playing with really good players on my line right now with ‘Pager’ and Zach (Parise). Just learn from them and just build off of it and just stay consistent.”
New York’s Cal Clutterbuck added the third Islanders goal of the period just past the midway point of the frame.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves in the loss.
“The result was secondary to how we played,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Certainly the first two periods, we had our chances. We were good defensively, managed the game well. They’re a good team, you’ve got to give them credit. The goalie made some saves, and they were solid as well.
“Obviously, the 1-0 goal changed the game. The first goal would have helped us a lot. They got it, so it changed the game a little bit.”
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