In Elmont, Oliver Wahlstrom hit for a double on Tuesday night to help the New York Islanders down the San Jose Sharks, 5-2.
For San Jose, it was their fifth straight loss to start the season.
“We’re a very fragile group right now,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “Once you’re in the cycle we’re in, it’s hard to get out of it, and it’s going to take a lot of work physically and mentally.”
Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves in the Islanders win.
“Solid all night,” New York’s ANders Lee said. “They pop the first one, and [Varlamov] kept us right in it the whole way. Didn’t give them any rebounds, nothing like that. He swallowed it all up tonight and was just again so solid.”
Lee, Zach Parise, and Cal Clutterbuck added single markers for the Isles.
“He is playing free,” New York coach Lane Lambert said about Wahlstrom. “I like the little details that he’s doing. I think anytime you’re a guy who is a shooter or a scorer, if you do the details and the little things in the game, it leads to that. So I think he’s doing those things very well.”
Nico Sturm gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead in the game.
“Our line, I think we all know we’re not the most skilled line,” Sturm said. “We’re not going to go out there dangling.”
The Sharks have been on their heels since dropping the first two games of the season in the Global Series openers.
Evgeny Svechnikov also scored for San Jose.
“We have to play more aggressive,” Sturm said. “Let’s face it, we’re not going to blow out teams out there. [We’re not] going to score five, six goals every game, so we have to figure out how we start winning games when you score two or three goals.”
The second period has been the downfall of San Jose, being outscored 12-2 so far this season.
“Again, I think it’s a reflection of the fragility of the group,” Quinn said. “I thought as the game gradually went on we lost a little bit of our D-zone structure.”
James Reimer made 41 saves in the Sharks loss.
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