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The New York Islanders dropped both games of their back-to-back this weekend, falling 6-3 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, then 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.
In Saturday’s loss to Boston, the Islanders fell behind early and ended up down 2-1 after the opening frame. However, two early second period goals sunk them into a three-goal deficit that they didn’t come close to recovering from. The Islanders allowed 44 shots and were outplayed through most of the game, leading to a 6-3 loss.
The Islanders put together a pretty strong opening frame against the Lightning yesterday and exited the period with a lead, thanks to a goal from Brock Nelson. However, Victor Hedman tied the game early in the second period, coming down the wing and putting a shot through Ilya Sorokin. Then later in the period, Anthony Cirelli got to a loose puck and went down ice to feed a pass to Alex Killorn, who put Tampa Bay ahead. It looked like Jean-Gabriel Pageau did manage to tie the game before the end of the frame though, sneaking a backhand shot through Vasilevskiy, but it was later ruled that Kyle Palmieri was offside on the zone entry. The Lightning then outshot the Islanders by a huge 14-6 margin in the final frame and added two more goals, taking a 4-1 win.
The losses mark the end of a pretty solid stretch of play for the team, though the Islanders were facing a higher quality of competition this weekend. New York has fared pretty well against weaker teams this season, but pretty consistently can’t get the job done once the competition gets tougher.
They were outshot 78-51 over the two matchups combined and it was a pretty disappointing set of games. The bright spot is that I will once again give credit to Anders Lee and Brock Nelson, who each continue to produce at an excellent rate.
The Islanders now have 18 games remaining this season and will be back in action against the Columbus Blue Jackets tomorrow.
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