A night after Washington's two goal in 18 second outburst was the difference in the Senators losing at home, the Ottawa Senators were the victim of a similar fate Wednesday night at the hands of the New York Islanders.
After a scoreless first period, a slumping John Tavares got the Islanders on the board just over 5 minutes into the second, beating Erik Karlsson to the net and putting a rebound past Andrew Hammond. Ten minutes later, Matt Martin tipped a Travis Hamonic shot past Hammond and then 21 seconds after that former Senator Shane Prince won a battle behind the Ottawa net and got the puck out to Brock Nelson who fired it past the Hamburglar.
That was all the damage the Islanders needed to do, thanks to the solid goaltending of rookie JF Berube, who stopped 22 shots for his second career win. The only blemish on his game sheet was a backhand flip by Mark Stone that got over the rookie third-stringer's shoulder.
Karlsson picked up an assist on the play with a nice pass to send Stone in alone, keeping his point per game pace going, while Stone now has recorded back to back 60 point seasons.
Ottawa managed just 23 shots, but also allowed just 23, but the three goals against was too many for the second straight night. The fact that the power play is 0-for-March certainly isn't helping matters. There was also a pretty evident lack of intensity for the Sens, perhaps understandable given their situation with respect to the playoffs but not going to show well if they have any hope of rescuing their coach's job(s). The number of "fly-bys" the Senators have exhibited of late is really quite shocking and a lttle disturbing, even at this point in the season.
The Senators are off until Saturday when their schedule doesn't get any easier as they host the Ducks who are battling for first place in the Pacific Division '