Islanders' Bo Horvat scores lone goal in shootout to secure two points in Chicago

CHICAGO — The Islanders got away with one against Chicago, a team one point out of the NHL cellar, and they were disappointed about that.

They could not hold an early two-goal lead as Chicago used its youthful energy to sustain pressure and consistently get to the puck first against the Islanders’ weak defensive effort. Eventually, all the Islanders will remember was it ended as a 3-2 shootout victory on Tuesday night at United Center.

But not yet.

“We just took them lightly,” a disgusted Mathew Barzal told Newsday. “Honestly after (2-0 lead), we thought it was going to be an easy game. Credit to them, they competed hard and that’s really it. There’s 82 games a year. Not every one is going to be good. We move on.”

“Yeah, we weren’t great all night,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said when asked whether he agreed with Barzal.

“Even in the first, we got away with a little bit. We gave up too many Grade A chances. All night we were a little loose defensively that way. We got away with it tonight but you can’t rely on that every night. We’ve got to be a lot sharper.”

Coach Patrick Roy, seeking anything to spark the offense, reunited Barzal with Bo Horvat for the first time since Nov. 7. Still, the Islanders (22-14-4) failed to score more than two goals for the eighth straight game.

“I thought we had a really good first,” said Horvat, who scored the lone goal in the shootout and gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal off Barzal’s assist at 12:08 of the first period.

“After that, I just think our whole team, we sat back a little bit too much and we weren’t as crisp in the second.

“Overall, I think we can be a lot better as a team. You don’t ask how sometimes and we found a way to get that done.”

Chicago (14-18-7), which has lost eight of nine and 10 of their last 12 with Connor Bedard (shoulder) missing his eighth game, hit three crossbars and had Nick Foligno hit the right post with six seconds remaining in regulation. David Rittich stopped 17 shots in his fifth straight start with Ilya Sorokin (lower body) on injured reserve while Spencer Knight made 19 saves.

“Even in the first period, I thought we were not playing our best,” said Roy, adding he would have to review the game before deciding whether to keep Barzal and Horvat on a line together.

“In the second, it was hard to watch. It was not our best game. The good thing is we found a way to win the game. We didn’t move the puck well. We didn’t generate much offensively in the second and third periods.”

Specifically, the Islanders’ transition game was non-existent.

They did go 1-for-3 on the power play after going 0-for-7 in their previous two games, including Sunday’s 4-2 loss in Columbus. But they generated just one shot skating four on three after defenseman Artyom Levshunov tripped Emil Heineman at 2:43 of overtime.

Rookie Cal Ritchie, returning to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the first time on Sunday, opened the scoring as he lifted a wrist shot from the slot at 2:56 of the first period.

Chicago tied it at 2-2 with 1.7 seconds left in the second period on Nick Lardis’ power-play goal with Horvat serving a double minor for high sticking Foligno.

Teuvo Teravainen halved the lead at 15:31 of the second period after Oliver Moore beat Ritchie on a faceoff in the Islanders’ zone.

Notes & quotes: Longtime defense partners Adam Pelech and Pulock each played in their 600th NHL game, all for the Islanders, and were given the honor of reading the starting lineup to their teammates. “Obviously pretty fluky,” said Pulock, who made his NHL debut on Feb. 28, 2016 while Pelech’s first game was Nov. 13, 2015.

“We’ve had different injuries along the way and here we are at 600 games. It’s kind of funny.” Hall of Famer Denis Potvin (1,060) and Stefan Persson (622) are the only defensemen to have played more games for the franchise . . . Defenseman Adam Boqvist and forwards Kyle MacLean and Max Tsyplakov were the healthy scratches.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.