For a second straight game, the New York Islanders held a lead on the road against a Central Division opponent. But on Saturday night in Minnesota against the third-place Wild, they were dominating.
Patrick Roy’s men held a 3-1 lead midway through the second period, outshooting the Wild 12-3.
Then it all changed in a blink.
In just 5:29, the Wild scored three goals off deflected shots, turning the game on its head and putting the Islanders in a hole they ultimately could not get out of in the 6-3 loss.
A Frederik Gaudreau shot on the power play pinged off New York defenseman Tony DeAngelo and past Ilya Sorokin at the 13:21 mark of the fateful frame. Matt Boldy deflected Minnesota’s tying goal 3:28 later off a Jonas Brodin shot.
Yakov Trenin capped off the quick counter-punch when he got a piece of Jake MIddleton’s shot and sent it past Sorokin 51 seconds later
“We were in control,” veteran winger Kyle Palmieri said (h/t Islanders official site). “They got that power play, and then all of a sudden, you blink, and it’s four three. Just a crummy three or four minutes.”
Just 24 hours earlier, the Islanders squandered a 2-1 first-period lead by allowing three goals to the Central-leading Winnipeg Jets in a 4-3 loss.
After nabbing the NHL’s first star of the week with a sterling 3-0 record and a .953 save percentage, Sorokin has now given up four or more goals in two straight games — and for the first time, the patchwork Islanders defense that held up so admirably and resolutely in the previous two-plus weeks looked overwhelmingly beatable.
Perhaps this two-week break that comes with the highly-anticipated 4 Nations tournament is coming at a perfect time.
The Islanders had won eight of their previous nine games before this quick Central Division pre-break swing. Sorokin had rediscovered his Vezina-caliber form and that rag-tag defense, which has seen DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich, Adam Boqvist, and Dennis Cholowski replace the injured Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, and Scott Mayfield, helped ensure that New York allowed more than two goals once during a nine-game span.
But two straight losses have done some damage, even if other results around the league eased the blow. The crosstown-rival Rangers jumped over the Islanders for fifth-place in the Eastern Conference Wild Card standings, where the top two teams earn a playoff berth.
While the Islanders are only four back of the second-place Detroit Red Wings, three teams now sit between them — though the third-place Columbus Blue Jackets and fourth-place Boston Bruins have played more games.
“Our guys deserve the break,” Roy said. “We need to be ready when we come back [on Feb. 23] when we play Dallas.”
