Islanders lose to Sabres in shootout; controversial goal costly

BUFFALO —  David Rittich  was willing to risk being fined by the NHL.

The backup goalie’s superb effort behind a slow and stationary defense was the primary reason the Islanders managed to salvage a point in Saturday’s 3-2, five-round shootout loss to the Sabres at KeyBank Center as they dropped their third straight.

But Rittich openly questioned why the Sabres’ second goal counted at all. In his mind, this should have been the Islanders stealing two points rather than having Tage Thompson’s stuff-in at the left post count at 8:55 of the second period, giving the Sabres a 2-0 lead.

“He made a good play, he made me move,” said Rittich, who made 30 saves. “We have 75 cameras at the stadium and not even one showed the puck in the net. The only guy who saw it was the ref. I didn’t even react when they started celebrating. When you don’t see a clear replay with the puck in, how can you call it a goal?

“I got pushed right before, and that changed the whole thing. My whole body rotated in the net. We cannot take a look at where the puck ended up on the play because I got pushed in.”

“I never saw the puck in the net,” coach Patrick Roy said. “The reason why we didn’t challenge it is very simple. It’s because the referee said that the puck went in right at the start. Us, we thought that puck went in when [Peyton] Krebs poked it into our goalie’s pads. But they gave the goal to Thompson, so there was no way we could win that challenge.

“It was inconclusive, in my opinion. But if they had given the goal to [Krebs], we would have challenged it. But I don’t know how the referee saw it at the beginning.”

Still, this was not about a good-goal-or-not call for the Islanders (19-13-4), who have lost three of four without top-six center Bo Horvat (left leg/ankle). It was more about the Sabres (16-14-4) — who entered the game tied for last in the Eastern Conference but who won their fifth straight — being the better team for most of the game.

Josh Norris had the deciding goal in the shootout and the Sabres’ Alex Lyon stopped 32 shots, but the Islanders did not correct enough of their mistakes from Friday’s somnolent 4-1 loss to the Canucks, who entered that game last in the Western Conference. The Islanders tried to simplify their offense to be more focused on a north-south game toward the Sabres’ crease but were not consistently successful.

“It was a good feeling getting the tie at the end,” said   Emil Heineman, who took a career-high 10 shots and tied it with 28.3 seconds left in regulation with the Islanders skating six-on-four. Rittich was off for an extra skater and defenseman Michael Kesselring was in the penalty box for slashing Anders Lee’s stick.

“I didn’t like our start,’’ Heineman added. “I don’t think anyone did. In the second half, we really showed who we are. Started to build to back to where we are. We were more playing as a team [after playing as individuals earlier].’’

The Islanders took 14 shots in the second period and closed to 2-1 with 22.3 seconds remaining as Mathew Barzal — extending his point streak to seven games — knocked in his own rebound at the right post.

“It was a bit of a tough back-to-back, getting in late,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “Sometimes you might not have your best on those nights. You’ve got to stick with it.

“Yeah, in the first, we weren’t very good. In the second, we started to find it a little bit. [Rittich], he was solid all night. He made huge saves for us. He kept us within reach and we were able to get a point there.”

The Islanders’ first period was as bad as the three they played against the Canucks. They were stagnant offensively and sluggish on defense.

Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin blew past, in order, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Heineman and Pulock to get to the crease for a backhander to make it 1-0 at 1:47. It would have been a two-goal lead on Josh Norris’ power-play one-timer from the right circle if Zach Benson had not been whistled for goalie interference.

Notes & quotes:  Laurel Hollow’s Marshall Warren  logged a team-low 9:51 with one shot in his third NHL game as he was inserted on the third pair with defenseman Scott Mayfield, with Adam Boqvist returning to being a healthy scratch . . . Max Tysplakov drew onto the fourth line as rookie Max Shabanov was a healthy scratch for the first time.

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.