Islanders' third-period woes continue in loss to Oilers in Edmonton

EDMONTON, Alberta — Same period, same problem. The Islanders just can’t get out of their own way in the third.

“It’s tough,” captain Anders Lee said. “We’re feeling it.”

The losing streak extended to 0-4-1 — four straight in regulation — as the Oilers scored three times in the third period for a 4-1 win on Monday night at Rogers Place in Kris Knoblauch’s coaching debut.

Penalties again doomed the Islanders (5-6-3) as they opened a four-game western swing. They got 28 saves from Ilya Sorokin, who has won just one of his last seven starts.

Simon Holmstrom took a needless tripping penalty in the offensive zone and defenseman Ryan Pulock shot the puck over the glass for a delay of game and the Oilers quickly turned that into two power-play goals.

“We continue to do that,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Holmstrom’s penalty, he’s got to be careful not to trip the guy with his stick. And you can’t shoot the puck over the glass. And then when we do those things, we have to kill them off. Right now, we’re not getting kills.”

The Islanders’ penalty kill is just 8-for-14 in the losing streak.

Stuart Skinner stopped 32 shots for the Oilers (4-9-1), who fired Jay Woodcroft on Sunday in favor of Knoblauch. The Islanders did hold the Oilers to just 13 shots over the first two periods.

“We’ve got to look in the mirror and figure that out,” defenseman Scott Mayfield said of the Islanders’ third-period woes. “A pretty high offensive team getting 13 shots over two is pretty good. We go on the kill and our kill couldn’t pull it out and make nice plays. It’s got to be better.”

Holmstrom’s trip on defenseman Brett Kulak at 7:26 of the third period led to Zach Hyman’s power-play goal at the crease nine seconds later to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead. Pulock’s gaffe at 8:36 led to Connor McDavid’s wrist shot, which Sorokin partially stopped, making it 3-1 at 9:33.

Evander Kane later added a shorthanded, empty-netter.

“We played a good hockey game until it went bad,” Lee said.

The Islanders’ issues have stemmed from an inability to play a full 60-minute game. There have been pockets of strong play but with enough mistakes to spoil the outcome. The Islanders have been outscored 14-3 in the third period of their last seven games (1-4-2).

“After they scored, what’s happening is guys are sometimes trying to do too much,” Lambert said. “It kind of works in reverse a little bit.”

The Oilers can only hope their coaching change portends better things.

Knoblauch’s tenure got off to a shaky start as the Islanders pressured quickly and Bo Horvat set up Mathew Barzal for a one-timer to make it 1-0 just 40 seconds into the first period, the first time in four games the Islanders have scored first.

But the Islanders, as has been their wont, could not build on their early momentum, even with Cal Clutterbuck hitting the far post from the left off a rush at 7:25 of the first period.

“I don’t have an answer for that simply because we put pucks to the net,” Lambert said when asked why the Islanders again struggled to score a second goal. “We have to capitalize on our scoring chances. We had plenty of shots. We had plenty of traffic. We have to find ways to get pucks in the net.”

Leon Draisaitl — centering his own line rather than playing with McDavid as one of the first changes Knoblauch enacted — tied it at 1-1 at 14:17 of the first period. Draisaitl also had three assists.

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.