CALGARY, Alberta — The Islanders should be heading back home with three wins in their last four games on the road, excited not just about how they played but the results they got.
Instead, they flew to Detroit to regain a 2-1-2 record on this five-game trip, not only leading in the third period but also feeling like they were behind. I'm wondering why I missed two games in a row even though I was playing for the first time in a row. They were a better team.
That feeling is nothing new, so in at least one sense Tuesday's 2-1 shootout loss to the Flames was no surprise.
For the second game in a row, and 19 games this season for what seems like a zillion already, the Islanders fought for food and held the lead as Andrei Kuzmenko scored the game-winning goal for Calgary. , paid the price. Gunfight.
Unlike Seattle two days earlier, the Islanders didn't dominate much of the game, but in a low-volume game, they held a 1-0 lead going into the third, with a lead in front of Semyon Varlamov. played some healthy hockey.
But it's hard to win games 1-0 in this league, and the Islanders learned that to their own detriment.
They finally got some offensive pressure early in the third, but after back-to-back stops by Calgary netminder Dustin Wolfe, Scott Mayfield took a stumble penalty 6:32 into the third. He began to antagonize the Islanders.
Rasmus Andersson scored a power-play goal at 8:18 to tie the score as the Islanders took advantage of overtime pressure that neither could generate on a 5-on-4 chance early in the game.
This was enough to send the game into overtime, with both teams trading Grade A chances late in regulation.
Varlamov made an acrobatic save from Matthew Coronato and Nazem Kadri hit the post on a 3-on-3, but Noah Dobson hit the crossbar after a tripping penalty from Mikael Backlund, giving the Islanders their own lead. I got frustrated.
In the skills competition, Wolf stopped two shots he saw and Kuzmenko and Justin Kirkland both scored to lead Calgary to victory.
On a night when Alexander Romanov returned to action and Pierre Engvall opened the scoring by knocking the puck past Wolf 1:32 into the second period, continuing their strong streak out of nowhere, the Islanders found themselves You'll feel like you deserve more.
But the game was spent far too much behind, with the Islanders repeatedly flipping the puck out and enduring another shift against Calgary's tough forecheck, resulting in them icing the puck over and over again. It happened.
The Islanders did a great job of keeping the flames out to the outside for all the time they spent inside their third of the ice.
They may say it's the kind of game they have to play in the streets, but if that sounds like the kind of moral victory they shouldn't be satisfied with, that's because it really is.
Still, this was a winnable game — just like too many games have ended in losses for the Islanders already this year.
