Islanders ‘Sin’ In OT Loss To Sharks

Elmont, NY– For the tenth time this season, the New York Islanders allowed the tying goal in the third period and lost after falling to the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in overtime at UBS Arena on Tuesday night.

That sounds troubling enough on its own.

But when factoring in that the Islanders scored twice on the power-play in the game, twice in the third period, and had a shorthanded goal, and still lost to the NHL’s worst team in terms of record, well, there are only so many ways to describe that kind of loss.

“It’s bad,” Anders Lee said.

“That’s unacceptable,” Brock Nelson said.

“To lose that game is a sin,” head coach Lane Lambert said.

After the Islanders took a commanding 4-1 lead in the third, they gave up three unanswered goals in the final 11:33 of regulation. With 4.3 seconds left in overtime, William Eklund scored the game-winning goal for San Jose.

“We played a really good hockey game and messed it all up in the last four minutes,” Lee said. “Just unhappy with this. This just can’t happen anymore. We really got to figure this out.”

The Islanders seemed to have it figured out when Mike Reilly and Ryan Pulock scored a shorthanded and a power play goal, respectively, making it a 4-1 game at 8:27 of the third.

But when Pulock turned the puck over in the defensive zone moments later, leading to Kevin Labanc’s goal that brought San Jose back within two, you knew a victory was far from secure.

“What’s been happening when we’ve given up leads is we have the puck on our stick,” Lambert said. “Too many turnovers in those situations. We’ve got to do a better job of managing the puck, taking care of the puck and getting the job done.”

From there, Tomas Hertl scored his second and third goals of the night, tying the score to complete the comeback for the Sharks and the collapse of the Islanders.

The Islanders didn’t trail in the game until the final horn sounded. Ilya Sorokin made 32 of 37 saves in goal.

Julien Gauthier’s second goal of the year opened the scoring at 9:28 of the first off of feeds from Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat.

Horvat had two assists in the game. He set up Nelson to score his team-leading 11th goal of the season, which put the Islanders ahead 2-1 in the second on the power play.

Tuesday night’s game was the first at home this season during which the Islanders scored multiple power-play goals. An accomplishment that has been rare this season that was vastly overshadowed by an often repeated failure.

The Islanders are now 10-7-7 with a record 4-3-5 record at home. Still, somehow, they’re hanging on to a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

But with each blown lead, that grip is weakening. It’s only a matter of time until the Islanders fall off for good.

FOLLOW ANDREW FANTUCCHIO ON 𝕏: @A_FANTUCCHIO

FOLLOW NYI HOCKEY NOW ON 𝕏 AND FACEBOOK