The Islanders allow power-play goal in overtime, earn one point in Washington
On Wednesday night at Capital One Arena, the New York Islanders battled for a point but were unable to secure a second one, losing 3-2 in overtime to the Washington Capitals.
The game-winning goal at 1:41 of overtime came during a power play by Dylan Strome. Hendrix Lapierre (1G, 1A) and Joel Edmundson scored goals for the Capitals during regulation, while Hudson Fasching and Anders Lee scored for the Islanders to force overtime. In the overtime defeat, Semyon Varlamov made 33 saves.
Head Coach Lane Lambert stated, “We improved as the game went on, but our start wasn’t good enough.” “In these consecutive circumstances, we need to address that.We persisted and managed to finish the game. We had another excellent goaltending performance, like we do each and every evening.
The Islanders’ explosive power play, which had been 4-for-9 with the man advantage in their previous three games entering Wednesday, cooled off as they went 0-for-3 against the Capitals.
The Islanders (39 points) gained a crucial point, but they also gave their opponents in the Metropolitan Division two, as the Capitals moved up to fifth place in the division with 36 points. With three games remaining, the Capitals are chasing the Islanders by three points.
SECOND HALF OF BACK-TO-BACK: ISLES START TO SLOW
This season, the Islanders have struggled in the second half of back-to-back sets; they lost 0-2-3 on the second night. Similar to their sluggish start in a 5-3 loss to Montreal on Saturday, they struggled to get going against Washington, behind 9-0 in shots halfway through the first quarter and out-attempted 27-11 after 20 minutes.
Hudson Fasching stated, “Defensively, they’re a tough team.” “In the first couple of periods, we encountered their ability to pin us in our own end.”
Washington’s first round pick in 2020, Hendrix Lapierre, who was recalled on Tuesday, opened the scoring.After an Islanders defensive zone mistake, the 21-year-old centre found open ice in the slot to bury an Aliaksei Protas feed at 9:56 in the first period.
At the start of the second period, Fasching tied the score at one goal apiece with the Islanders’ first wraparound goal of the season, giving the team new life.
Joel Edmundson’s point shot from the point beat Varlamov through traffic, giving the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 13:12 in the second period, and Washington eventually retook the lead.
Anders Lee stated, “We’d like to have a better start to the game.” Sometimes, even with a positive attitude, things just don’t work out.We are responsible for our ownness, but let’s focus a little bit on our performance and the [Capitals] solid work.
ISLES BATTLE BACK FOR POINT IN THIRD PERIOD: The Islanders showed some grit and got back to work in the third period, outshooting the Capitals 17-5 and potting a goal to force overtime. Prior to that, they had been outshot 26-16 in the first two periods.
With eight minutes remaining and down 2-1, Lee used a feed from Mathew Barzal to go to the net and beat Darcy Kuemper with a backhand to square the score at two.
Lee stated, “I think we did a wonderful job of grinding it out and sticking with it.” “They played a good game, but we took the game to overtime and gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Lee’s goal was his fourth in seven games and started a two-game goal run for the captain.
Varlamov made key stops in the third period to enable the Islanders to go into overtime. He stopped a half breakaway for Anthony Mantha with his stick and stopped Alex Ovechkin with the stick knob, extending his goal drought to 14 games.
Noah Dobson was called for tripping in overtime, which resulted in a four-on-three kill for the Islanders, who were now leading the league in games played beyond regulation. Dylan Strome took advantage of the situation and scored the game-winning shot for Washington, stretching his point streak to five games. Despite this, Lambert was pleased with his team’s attempt to get the extra point.
Lambert stated, “Unfortunately, we took a penalty in overtime, but I think we can leave here knowing we played well in the end.”
WAHLSTROM IN, GAUTHIER OUT: Oliver Wahlstrom made his first appearance on the pitch since December 2 and helped the Isles attempt a comeback with a few standout plays.
“He produced a few impressive plays,” Lambert remarked about Wahlstrom. “He set up scoring possibilities in the third period by winning a battle along the wall with a terrific play. I believed he performed as expected, going up and down.
Wahlstrom replaced Julien Gauthier (day-to-day, upper-body) in the starting lineup versus the Capitals. After skating for 11:39, the winger had one hit and one attempt on goal.
Cal Clutterbuck gave the Islanders a fright during the second period due to an injury, but he returned towards the end of the frame and played the entire game.
NEXT GAME: The Islanders take on the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Saturday to resume their five-game series against divisional opponents. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
