Islanders' playoff push stalled by Capitals' goal barrage
Bo Horvat of the Islanders looks on late in the third period against the Capitals at UBS Arena on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The ups and downs of a tight playoff race can make losses — even if they’ve been rare lately — feel worse than they might be.
But it’s also true that the Islanders did not play particularly well in Saturday night’s 5-1 loss to the Capitals at UBS Arena and could not mount a third-period rally to overcome their deficiencies. Instead, the visitors scored three third-period goals.
“We just didn’t do enough, especially in the third period,” Matt Martin said. “The game got away from us there. That’s a couple of games in a row now where we haven’t gotten off to the best of starts and you can’t rely on coming back every night.”
The loss, which snapped a three-game winning streak, coupled with the Penguins’ 5-1 victory over the visiting Flyers slid the Islanders (34-26-8) to the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot. The Islanders are still on a 6-2-1 run and have the same 76 points as the Penguins but have played three more games.
The Capitals (32-28-7) moved within five points of the Islanders.
“We were just a little off, not quite there tonight for whatever reason,” said Cal Clutterbuck, who returned after missing 20 games with an upper-body injury. “But the boys have been playing good hockey as of late.”
“We didn’t create a whole lot tonight,” Anders Lee said. “And then 2-1 going into the third and it got away from us.”
The Islanders had outscored their opponents 17-1 in the third period in their previous 10 games.
Semyon Varlamov, making his first start in five games, stopped 22 shots. The Capitals’ Darcy Kuemper had to make only 17 saves. The Islanders went 0-for-5 on the power play with seven shots and missed the net on 20 attempts, and the Capitals blocked 19 shots.
“We came out with good energy,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We had a little bit of trouble establishing a forecheck. I don’t think we got to the net good enough. Plus I thought we passed up some shots as well. On a night like that, you need your power play to get you going.”
The Islanders beat the Penguins, 4-3, in overtime on Thursday after entering the third period trailing by two.
Anthony Mantha gave the Capitals a 3-1 lead at 4:15 of the third period just as Casey Cizikas’ slashing penalty expired. Nic Dowd pushed it to 4-1 at 12:18 from the high slot. Defenseman Rasmus Sandin also beat Varlamov with a long-range wrist shot to cap the scoring at 13:19.
Pierre Engvall, who started on Josh Bailey’s fourth line with Clutterbuck, opened the scoring as his two-on-one feed on a delayed call deflected in off the skate of Capitals defenseman Alexander Alexeyev at 5:18 of the first period. It was his first goal in four games as an Islander after being acquired from the Maple Leafs for a third-round pick in 2024.
“It’s a little bit more straightforward here,” said Engvall, who logged 13:24 after getting just two shifts apiece in the second and third periods against the Penguins. “I advance the puck forward more all the time. I think Toronto was more we’d make those small plays a little bit more. Coming out of the defensive zone, we would try to find the middle, try to find the weak side. Here it’s more straightforward. That’s the big difference.”
Dylan Strome beat Varlamov over his blocker from the left circle to tie it at 6:41 and the Capitals took a 2-1 lead with 46.9 seconds left in the first period as T.J. Oshie got open in the low slot to tip in Sandin’s feed.
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.
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