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The New York Islanders split their back-to-back set this weekend, falling to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, before defeating the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
ISLANDERS LOSE 5-2 TO KINGS
The Islanders went down early, as Phillip Danault took a pass from Trevor Moore to score and then only about four minutes later, Matt Roy one-timed a shot past Semyon Varlamov. New York was outplayed through a lot of the opening 20 minutes and found themselves down 2-0.
New York didn’t come out much stronger in the second period, scoring on their own net off a faceoff to go down 3-0. Anders Lee did get the Islanders on the board but Brendan Lemieux responded later, recapturing the Kings’ three-goal lead.
It was a more even final frame, but the Islanders couldn’t cut the lead down until late, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau burying a rebound with a little over a minute to go. It didn’t matter though, with the Kings icing the game with an empty net goal for a 5-2 win.
ISLANDERS BEAT DUCKS 4-0
Despite New York being pretty badly outchanced through the first half of the period, Noah Dobson managed to open the scoring later in the period, following some great saves by Ilya Sorokin.
In the second period, Casey Cizikas capitalized on a nice feed from Ross Johnston only a little over a minute into the frame, making it 2-0. It wasn’t a wildly eventful period after that, as New York took a two-goal lead into the final period.
The Islanders were outplayed again in the third period, being outshot 13-8. However, they continued to take advantage of their opportunities, as Andy Greene took a pass from Ross Johnston and beat Anthony Stolarz with a nice shot. Kieffer Bellows then made a nice play to poke the puck by Josh Mahura a little later and went in on a breakaway, before beating Stolarz to make it 4-0, en route to an Islanders win.
Semyon Varlamov made his return against the Kings and it wasn’t a great performance. While he didn’t get help on a couple of the goals, he also really wasn’t overly sharp. Mathew Barzal and Zdeno Chara were also injured against the Kings and didn’t play against Anaheim.
The one positive to come from the loss to Los Angeles was maybe the penalty kill, which went 5-for-5.
On the other hand, Ilya Sorokin was great in the win over the Ducks, posting a shutout in the 4-0 win, despite New York being outshot 34-22. He faced not only a lot of shots but also a high quality of chances and was huge in the victory.
Even in the win, the Islanders surrendered a ton of chances. While they had more quality chances than their terribly low 22 shots may suggest, you’re still not going to win many games being outshot that badly.
The Islanders are well out of the playoff race and at this point, the intrigue all comes down to who’s still wearing the team’s jersey after the trade deadline. That said, the team’s next game comes tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche.
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Poll Maker OTHER ARTICLES FROM FEBRUARY
Islanders beat Senators 4-1 Islanders wrap up homestand with shutout loss to Kraken Kraken claim Austin Czarnik off waivers from Islanders Islanders beat Canucks after five-goal first period Islanders drop both games of back-to-back against Oilers and Flames Islanders fall to Sabres in final game of road trip Islanders pick up 4-1 win over Bruins One step forward, two steps back: Islanders lose to Canadiens Islanders kick off road trip with 5-2 win over Kraken Islanders fall to Sharks on Zdeno Chara’s record-breaking night