Islanders, with 18 shots on goal, shut out at UBS Arena by Edmonton

The Islanders could have had a chance against the uber-talented Oilers despite, in their own coach’s words, looking fatigued after a three-game road trip. Neither team gave up much skating five-on-five.

But any chance they did have in Saturday’s 4-0 loss at UBS Arena evaporated by ceding six power plays, starting with a five-minute major to Emil Heineman and subsequent game misconduct that left the Islanders one forward short for the final 57:38. This after playing without defenseman Ryan Pulock (upper body) for all but two shifts of Thursday’s 4-3 overtime win in Minnesota to conclude a 2-1-0 trip.

“Some obviously self-inflicted stuff against a team that you can’t do that to,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “To play down a man again considering what we’ve gone through recently basically after one shift and then take all those penalties, that’s a tough ask against that team and that power play.”

The Oilers (10-2-2) went 1-for-6 on the man advantage with seven shots and improved to 6-0-0 on the road. Tristan Jarry made 18 saves — and faced just five high-danger chances five-on-five according to NaturalStatTrick.com. — as the Islanders (7-5-2) were shut out for the first time this season. Ilya Sorokin stopped 20 shots after two shaky outings on the road trip.

“There’s a lot of penalties,” Matthew Schaefer said. “They feed off power plays and they’ve got a good power play. When you open the game and it starts there, we could have stayed out of the box. We could have just done better. I don’t think there was anything fancy there. When we’re in the box a lot of the time it’s not fun.”

“I didn’t think we played our best forecheck game,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “They moved the puck well but I thought we made it easy a little bit for them.”

Heineman was ejected at 2:22 of the first period for drawing a five-minute kneeing major on Oilers fourth-line right wing Isaac Howard, who was helped from the ice and did not return.

Heineman, in his third NHL season, has never been fined or suspended but could face NHL supplemental discipline for the play.

Referees Justin Kea and Kyle Rehman upheld the five-minute judgement after video review.

“I was surprised it was upheld as a major,” DeBoer said. “I haven’t looked at it that closely.”

“It’s hard to see a play like that,” said the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scored twice in the second period, finishing a rush for a 1-0 lead at 8:42 and converting on the power play to make it 3-0 at 18:26. “I’m sure they’ll look at it. I thought they did a good job of going back and figuring out that it was a major.”

Connor McDavid extended his season-opening point streak to 14 games as he set up Nugent-Hopkins’ power-play goal. He already has eight goals and 29 assists, putting him on pace for a 222-point season, which would set an NHL record.

McDavid’s linemates combined for the Oilers’ second goal at 9:50 of the second period as Vasily Podkolzin got open at the left post for Leon Draisaitl’s cross-crease feed. Jason Dickinson added a third-period empty-netter.

Defenseman Matt Kessel rejoined the Islanders’ lineup with Pulock unavailable and Isaiah George being recalled from their AHL affiliate in Hamilton, Ontario but being a healthy scratch.

The team reported Pulock, who appeared to grab at his left shoulder after taking a check from the Wild’s Blake Coleman, was undergoing medical evaluation on Saturday.

The Islanders also reported top-six forward Matias Maccelli (lower body), injured on Oct. 17 and expected to miss two to four weeks, has resumed skating on his own. The team said there were no updates on Mathew Barzal (left knee), who has been out since training camp opened and continues to skate on his own.

There is now a fortuitous break in the schedule with the Islanders not continuing this three-game homestand until facing the Stanley Cup-champion Hurricanes on Thursday night and not scheduled to practice either on Sunday or Monday.

“We looked a little fatigued today as a group,” DeBoer said. “And I think when you’re fatigued, mentally you make some mistakes you don’t normally make and physically you make some mistakes you don’t normally make. We’ve won some hard some-fought games and played extra time on the road (the last two games). We looked like a fatigued team today.”

That might explain giving the Oilers six power-plays, which denied the Islanders a chance for a better result.

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.