Islanders blow 3-0 lead, lose to Capitals in overtime
Dmitry Orlov #9 of the Washington Capitals scores the overtime goal against Ilya Sorokin #30 of the Islanders at UBS Arena on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023 in Elmont, New York. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It’s on to the next biggest game of the season for the Islanders. They blew the chance for two points in this one.
“Any time you get a three-goal lead, you’ve got to find a way to close that out and get both points,” defenseman Noah Dobson said Monday night. “Unfortunately, we didn’t.”
Alex Ovechkin’s heavy second-period hit on Jean-Gabriel Pageau changed the momentum as the Islanders lost, 4-3, in overtime to the Capitals in the first of four games between teams battling for playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Defenseman Dmitry Orlov scored with 33 seconds left in overtime as the Islanders (23-18-4) were leapfrogged by the Penguins for the final wild-card spot instead of moving within one point of the Capitals for the first wild-card position.
“You just have to move on. Clearly, the ending wasn’t the way we wanted,” said coach Lane Lambert, who said before the game that “every game from here on in is going to be the biggest game of the year.”
It also dropped the Islanders to 1-1-2 on their homestand, which concludes against the NHL-best Bruins on Wednesday night.
“When you build a 3-0 lead, it’s hard to give it up,” Lambert said. “We’ll have to figure that out.”
Ilya Sorokin, making his fourth straight start and 12th out of the last 13, stopped 31 shots but wasn’t as sharp as he had been in previous efforts. Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves for the Capitals (23-16-6), denying Pageau’s breakaway in overtime.
The Capitals began their turnaround after Ovechkin’s crunching hit on Pageau along the wall in the Islanders’ zone at 6:34 of the second period. A wobbly Pageau was helped to his skates by Dobson and headed straight for the team’s dressing room as Ovechkin’s high hit on Pageau, who had his back turned, was reviewed via video. Ovechkin went unpenalized and Pageau returned at 16:05 of the period.
By then, the Capitals had closed to within 3-2 on goals by Garnet Hathaway at 10:01 and Tom Wilson at 13:08 with the teams skating four-on-four.
“Very surprised,” Lambert said when asked about Ovechkin escaping a penalty. “Charging, boarding, whatever it might be. He took steps and we definitely should have been on the power play.”
“Didn’t love it, obviously,” said Matt Martin, who had a game-high 10 hits and a bloody, fat lip. “They looked at it and deemed it legal. I mean, what can you do?”
T.J. Oshie deflected defenseman Erik Gustafsson’s shot from the left point at 5:54 of the third period to tie it at 3.
“Just the way we were playing, we weren’t as aggressive and on our toes as we were early on in the game,” Dobson said. “They’re a good team. If you sit back a little too much, they’re going to find plays and make plays.”
The Islanders took a 2-0 lead in the first period with their simple, structured play.
Defenseman Sebastian Aho made it 1-0 at 4:24 with a shot through traffic from the blue line. Martin scored on a tip-in of a shot by Alexander Romanov from the blue line that first was deflected by Cal Clutterbuck to make it 2-0 at 13:19.
Hudson Fasching’s goal from the right circle past a surprisingly immobile, though screened, Kuemper pushed it to 3-0 at 3:51 of the second period.
“I think they got a jolt out of [Hathaway’s] goal,” Martin said. “We just didn’t take back momentum. We couldn’t get the next one. We had our opportunities, for sure. We’ve just got to find a way to clamp it down a little and get that fourth goal to try and put it away.”
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.
