Quick Goals Quickly Sink Islanders In Loss To Wild

Elmont, NY– In the NHL, no lead is safe, and that’s proving to be especially true for the New York Islanders.

For their third straight game at home, the Islanders fought to get ahead, only to lose the advantage and eventually the game, falling to the Minnesota Wild 4-2 Tuesday night.

Tied at two in the third period, a questionable penalty called on Noah Dobson gave Minnesota the break it needed as Kiril Kaprizov fired off a one-timer from the right faceoff circle to put the Wild ahead by one.

Forty-two seconds later, the deficit doubled with a goal from Joel Eriksson Ek.

Surrendering quick goals was a theme for the Islanders against Minnesota.

Pat Maroon found the game’s opening tally 19 seconds into the first period with an excellent feed by Marcus Foligno from behind the Islanders’ goal. Maroon’s quick wrist shot was one that neither Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov nor anyone else at UBS Arena saw coming.

Even after the Islanders took a 2-1 lead in the second period, Vinni Lettieri shortly tied the score for Minnesota with a shot that worked its way through a field of bodies and past a screened Varlamov.

Although the Wild put an end to Varlamov’s run of back-to-back shutout performances, he kept the Islanders in the game by making 27 saves on 31 shots.

On a nearly identical play to that of the Maroon goal, Casey Cizikas fed Dobson to tie the score for the Islanders 11 minutes into the first period with his fourth goal of the season. Cal Clutterbuck had a secondary assist on the goal.

With 34 career goals, Dobson now has the second most of any Islanders defenseman before his 24th birthday, behind only Dennis Potvin.

The goal for Dobson also helped him maintain his point-per-game pace to begin the year. Meanwhile, Dobson’s fellow former 2018 first-round pick found the score sheet for the first time this season.

With a quick move to the slot on his backhand, OliverWahlstrom sniped the top corner to put the Islanders up by one the power play in the second period. The goal, set up by Sebastian Aho and Pierre Engvall, was Wahlstrom’s first of the season and his first since Dec. 9, 2022.

And yet, the lift the Islanders had from Wahlstrom’s monumental goal wasn’t large enough to keep them securely ahead.

The loss to Minnesota was the Islanders’ third in their last four games and snapped a four-game point streak, dropping their record to 5-3-3.

The Islanders will travel to face the Eastern Conference’s best, Boston Bruins, on Thursday before returning home on Saturday to take on the Washington Capitals.

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