Islanders fall to Kraken to end long trip, drop to third place in the Metropolitan Division

SEATTLE — The Islanders started strong on the power play but finished weakly. Which is why their seven-game road trip ended on such a down note.

“It stinks,” Cal Ritchie said. “We want to get the win to close out the road trip and it stinks not being able to do that.”

They went 1-for-7 on the power — scoring on their first chance — in a 4-1 loss to the Kraken on Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena that left the Islanders 3-3-1 on the 16-day trip.

It was the most power plays the Islanders have received in a game this season and their most failures, topping the four times they went 0-for-5. Their 10:22 skating with a man-up — including six seconds skating two men up — yielded a paltry seven shots.

“I mean, it’s not rocket science,” captain Anders Lee said. “You move the puck, you find the lane, you bring it to the lane. When it’s not going you can’t be cute with it. You can harp on it all you want. The guys that are going out there, they’ve got to do it.”

Lee is the net-front presence on the second power-play unit. He, Ritchie, Simon Holmstrom, Anthony Duclair, Mathew Barzal, Jonathan Drouin, Matthew Schaefer, Max Shabanov, Emil Heineman and Tony DeAngelo all logged at least four minutes of man-advantage ice time.

“After the first one, we didn’t do exactly what we wanted to do,” Ritchie said. “We’ve got to find a way to score a couple on those power plays.”

The Kraken’s penalty kill entered the match last in the NHL.

“They’re aggressive,” Lee said. “So if you’re not moving the puck clean, you’re going to put yourself in trouble.”

The loss knocked the Islanders (27-18-5), who got 21 saves from Ilya Sorokin, to third place in the Metropolitan Division as the Penguins surged ahead of them. Philipp Grubauer stopped 24 shots for the Kraken (22-18-9), who snapped a four-game losing streak that was part of a 1-4-2 skid.

“Am I disappointed we didn’t go home 4-2-1? Yeah,” coach Patrick Roy said. “That was an opportunity for us to win that game. It was a big game for them as well. When you’re on the road and you’re coming back from a long trip like .500, it’s not exactly what you want but you take it.”

Except the way the Islanders lost, particularly in the Kraken’s two-goal second period, annoyed the Islanders. Roy said he felt the Islanders passed up some shots and wasn’t happy with the backchecking that allowed the Kraken to score twice on odd-man rushes.

Defenseman Ryan Pulock didn’t like the turnovers.

“We just turned some pucks over in the offensive zone and some odd-man rushes, they made some plays and capitalized on those chances,” Pulock said. “It doesn’t matter where you are, what game, on a road trip or at home, you’ve got to be focused and show up. Tonight, whatever it was, in the second, we just had a couple of moments that cost us the game.”

The Islanders face the Sabres at UBS Arena on Saturday afternoon in their first home game since Jan. 6.

Duclair, converting Ritchie’s feed on the power play, opened the scoring at 2:38 of the first period with his eighth goal in eight games. But the Islanders did little with three further man advantages in the first period, their two in the second and one in the third.

Matty Berniers’ five-on-three power play goal tied it at 1 at 10:40 of the first period. Defenseman Vince Dunn made it 2-1 at 13:37 of the second period off an odd-man rush and Kaapo Kakko pushed it to 3-1 at 16:28 just as Duclair exited the penalty box.

Jared McCann clinched it with an empty-netter at 16:31 of the third period.

Notes & quotes: Max Tsyplakov logged a team-low 9:14 skating on Casey Cizikas’ fourth line with Shabanov after he skated just 6:43 in Monday’s 4-3 win over the Canucks. He has one goal in 26 games in his second NHL season. “We all want him to succeed,” Roy said. “Shame on me for not giving him more [minutes on Monday] but, sometimes, you do what you think is the right thing to do as a coach. We’re not always perfect.” . . . Defenseman Cole McWard and forward Marc Gatcomb 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.