Tougher competition will punish mistakes.
And that explains the end of the Islanders’ nine-game winning streak and 11-0-1 run, plus their solo hold on first place in the East Division.
The Capitals went 2 for 4 on the power play and won their sixth straight, 3-1, on Tuesday night as the Islanders concluded a three-game road trip. Alex Ovechkin scored his 718th goal, surpassing Phil Esposito for sixth place on the NHL’s all-time list.
Both teams now have 42 points but the Capitals have played one fewer game. The Islanders had been 16-2-4 since losing a two-game series in Washington on Jan. 26-28, the first game on defenseman Justin Schultz’s goal with 26.4 seconds left in regulation and the second when they couldn’t hold a three-goal, first-period lead.
So, three of the Islanders’ seven regulation losses have come to the Capitals.
Tuesday marked the start of a stretch of 12 straight games against the top playoff contenders in the East Division, including the Penguins, Bruins and Flyers, after playing seven of the last eight against the bottom two in the Devils and Sabres.
"You have to beat the teams below you but, at the same time, you’re going to go nose-to-nose against some really good teams," coach Barry Trotz said. "The Caps are at the top of the league and you look through the rest of the month, they’re teams in the one through five spots. Every night, we’ve got to be prepared."
The Islanders were without Noah Dobson for a second straight game as the defenseman remained on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. But Jean-Gabriel, cleared off the protocol list on Monday, returned after missing Sunday’s 3-2 shootout win over the Devils.
The Capitals are still without the suspended Tom Wilson.
Semyon Varlamov, alternating starts with rookie Ilya Sorokin for the 11th straight game, stopped 19 shots for the Islanders. But Ilya Samsonov (21 saves) kept the Capitals in the game early and allowed them to find their stride as they played on back-to-back nights after a 6-0 win in Buffalo on Monday.
The Capitals pushed their lead to 3-1 on Nicklas Backstrom’s power-play goal just 28 seconds into the third period. Defenseman Scott Mayfield was in the penalty box after being goaded into a roughing penalty after the second-period buzzer by Richard Panik, who refused to engage.
Rookie Oliver Wahlstrom countered with a power-play goal from the slot to make it 3-1 at 4:17.
The Capitals withstood the Islanders’ early push, then scored twice in the second period by capitalizing on some glaring mistakes.
T.J. Oshie tapped in a loose puck at the crease after Ovechkin hit the post on the rush to make it 1-0 at 10:36. Wahlstrom lost an edge in the offensive zone and the Capitals turned that into a three-on-one rush. The real mistake, though, came as Austin Czarnik headed behind the Islanders’ crease rather than going to the net to clear Ovechkin’s rebound.
Ovechkin’s assist gave him 1,300 career points.
His milestone goal came on a power-play one-timer from — where else? — the left circle to make it 2-0 at 15:24 after Mathew Barzal’s frustrations led him to take an ill-advised cross-checking penalty against defenseman Nick Jensen in the offensive zone. In response, Trotz did not give Barzal a third-period shift until 8:14.
Samsonov was the difference as the Islanders outchanced the Capitals, 23-13, in the first period.
He denied Wahlstrom from the slot just 46 seconds in, made a kick save on defenseman Sebastian Aho — in the lineup for Dobson for a second straight game — at 1:39, then made a blocker save on Brock Nelson from close range at 2:53.
ALL-TIME NHL GOAL-SCORERS
1. Wayne Gretzky 894
2. Gordie Howe 801
3. Jaromir Jagr 766
4. Brett Hull 741
5. Marcel Dionne 731
6. Alex Ovechkin 718
