A two-goal lead in the third period plus a bordering-on-brilliant Ilya Sorokin in net should have equaled a win for the Islanders.
Instead, coach Patrick Roy was left hoping his team will start gaining some confidence playing with a late lead after the Devils rallied for a 4-3 overtime win on Saturday night at UBS Arena.
“Tonight, I’m disappointed for our guys,” Roy said. “Our first 40 [minutes] was not our best. We didn’t forecheck like we’re capable of. We didn’t possess the puck offensively. They had a lot of good chances and Ilya made some great saves. But in the third we played hard and we played well. We need to find a way to close those games.”
But how, exactly? The Islanders have had trouble holding leads. The Devils tied the teams’ first game this season with 89 seconds left in regulation before the Islanders won in overtime, 4-3, on Oct. 25 at Prudential Center.
“First of all, it’s a matter of confidence,” Roy said. “And secondly, we need to defend better around our net. They pick up rebounds. So we’ve got to find a way to box them out and put our hands on those pucks. We can’t throw pucks away. We’ve got to eat those pucks and swarm it and kill the clock. When they pull the goalie, it’s the clock. Don’t get rid of the puck. Eat the puck if you don’t have a play.”
Dawson Mercer cut the Islanders’ lead to 3-2 at 15:33 and Stefan Noesen, with the Devils skating six-on-five, tied the score at 3-3 with 48.3 seconds left in regulation on a puck that bounced in off defenseman Grant Hutton’s skate. Jack Hughes won it with a breakaway at 2:35 of overtime.
Sorokin finished with 29 saves for the Islanders (6-6-3), who had their first two-game winning streak of the season snapped. Jacob Markstrom stopped 19 shots for the Devils (10-5-2), who have won three straight.
“We had a two-goal lead kind of late and they throw some pucks at the net and we’ve got to do a better job there cleaning that area up,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “You know they’re going to push. I don’t think we let off the gas. We just have to be a little sharper. [Sorokin] was unbelievable. He made save after save for us tonight.”
That included denying Jesper Bratt on a two-on-one at 9:48 of the third period, leading to defenseman Dennis Cholowski’s goal from the left circle to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 10:30. Cholowski logged a team-low 6:45 of ice time.
Sorokin then used his pad to stop defenseman Luke Hughes at 12:11, with Brock Nelson making it 3-1 from the low slot 15 seconds later. Sorokin also made split saves on Bratt and Jack Hughes in the second period.
“It probably wasn’t our best game,” Kyle Palmieri said. “Sorokin kept us in it and we found a way to have a lead in the third. I guess that’s a positive. But we’ve got to find a way to protect that lead and make it a no-brainer.”
Simon Holmstrom, cutting to the crease for Kyle MacLean’s feed, opened the scoring at 13:09 of the first period on the Islanders’ third shot. The Devils outshot them 10-5 over the first 20 minutes and 20-11 through two periods.
Jack Hughes tied it with a power-play shot through traffic at 5:57 of the second period with Cholowski in the box for high-sticking.
Notes & quotes: The Islanders are listing defenseman Mike Reilly (concussion) as out indefinitely instead of day-to-day. Reilly was knocked out on a high hit from the Sabres’ Jordan Greenway on Nov. 1 and has not resumed skating. When Roy was asked if Reilly is “doing OK,” he replied: “I cannot answer that question. But he’s out indefinitely, so we’ll see how things go.” . . . Defenseman Alexander Romanov (upper body) skated on his own on Saturday and will accompany the Islanders on their five-game road trip that starts Tuesday in Edmonton. He missed his fourth straight game and seventh in the last eight after initially being hurt on a high hit from the Devils’ Kurtis MacDermid on Oct. 25 . . . The Islanders celebrated their Military Appreciation Night . . . Anders Lee had a four-game point streak snapped . . . Forward Hudson Fasching remained the healthy scratch.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
