For the New York Islanders, the UBS Arena in Elmont has been anything but a safe home.
In a Sunday matinee, the Isles dropped a 4-3 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights after penalties.
Vegas’ Shea Theodore hit for his second goal of the game with 48 seconds left in regulation to force an extra session, which solved nothing.
“I think our game was starting to come around prior to the trip,” Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I like how we’re playing, we’re starting to get healthy. I don’t think anyone ever predicts you can sweep a four-game road trip, especially through these four cities , but I think it doesn’t just happen like that, I think you build into it and I think our game was starting to trend in a good direction.”
Robin Lehner made 29 saves in the Vegas win.
“It’s so much more than hockey to me, I can’t explain it,” Lehner said. “It’s the love I have for the guys there, this team, the organization, the fans, [how] they helped me with my life.”
The Golden Knights improved to 20-11-0.
Vegas won four straight on the east coast.
“Those are huge points on the road,” Theodore said. ” … Just a lot of pieces coming together at the right times, from good goaltending to timely goals. It’s been big.”
The Isles took a 3-2 lead in the game off a pair of goals from Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kieffer Bellows.
The Islanders dropped to 8-12-6.
“That was a good hockey game,” New York’s Brock Nelson said. “It’s a good team. We battled ourselves back, got the lead. Anytime you’re up one late, you want to try and hang onto that and get the two points. It’s a positive you get one, but you’re disappointed in the last minute for sure. But it was a good game.”
“It’s unfortunate to give up a goal at the end like this, to lose that point,” Pageau said. “But overall, we grabbed a big point tonight.”
Jonathan Marchessault had a single marker for the Knights, to give them a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Brock Nelson tied it up 1-1, before the end of the opening frame.
Theodore and Nicolas Roy struck for the Knights on skills.
Ilya Sorokin made 31 saves in the Isles loss.
“Ilya was good,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “He made some big saves, especially in the second period when they had all that chaos those two shifts.”
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