ELMONT, N.Y. — Heartbreaker is a cliched term.
But it fits perfectly for the Islanders’ 4-3 loss to the Predators on Thursday night at UBS Arena.
Defenseman Roman Josi’s shot from the left point through traffic after Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson couldn’t clear the puck was deflected in by Eeli Tolvanen with 11.5 seconds left in regulation.
The last-place Islanders (6-11-5), desperate for points, had a four-game point streak (1-0-3) snapped, fell to 0-5-2 at their new $1.1 billion home and have now lost 12 of their last 13 games even as they recover from a COVID-19 outbreak.
Plus, they couldn’t hold a third-period lead.
Dobson, playing in his 100th NHL regular-season game, gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead on a twisting wrist shot from the right point past David Rittich (18 saves) at 5:08 of the third period. Ross Johnston retrieved the puck behind the crease and got it to defenseman Andy Greene at the left point.
It was a good example of how the Islanders’ cohesive team game is repairing itself.
"A big part of our game is just believing in our systems, believing in our work ethic and kind of just making sure we pay attention to all the details out there," defenseman Scott Mayfield said before the game. "I think we’ve done it better the last couple of games. It’s all about just finding the wins now."
But Yakov Trenin, getting to the right post, pushed it past Semyon Varlamov (25 saves) to tie it at 3 at 12:31 of the third period.
The Predators (15-10-1) negated the Islanders’ good start with two goals within 84 seconds to take a 2-1 lead after the first period. First, Ryan Johansen slipped behind defenseman Sebastian Aho, who had coughed up the puck, to tap in the puck at the right post to tie it at 1 at 17:28. Then Varlamov kicked out a long rebound of defenseman Matt Benning’s shot from the right point directly to the unchecked Colton Sissons in the left circle to make it 2-1 at 18:52.
Austin Czarnik opened the scoring at 6:48 of the first period, cutting toward the crease to knock in Oliver Wahlstrom’s backhand feed from the left after he had transported the puck up ice. It was Czarnik’s first NHL goal since Oct. 24, 2019 with the Flames.
The momentum shifted after Zdeno Chara stepped up for Aho, his defense partner, who had been flattened by Trenin along the wall in the Islanders’ zone at 13:18 of the first period. The 6-9, 255-pound Chara bloodied the face of the 6-2, 201-pound Trenin, who, at first, seemed a bit reluctant to fight, but the Predators got the game’s first power play with Chara given an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Islanders tied it at 2 on Anders Lee’s power-play goal at 1:56 of the second period after Trenin was called for interference against Aho.
Lee, one of eight Islanders who tested positive for COVID-19, also had two goals in Tuesday night’s 5-3 win at Ottawa to snap a six-game drought without a point.
"Guys that haven’t scored in a while, you can just see the relief in their face," coach Barry Trotz said. "There’s not an analytic that can tell you what the feeling is. It really can rejuvenate a player because they dwell on it."
Anthony Beauvillier has now gone 13 games without a point and Trotz did not give him a shift for the first 9:59 of the second period, perhaps a reaction to his slowly getting up ice from the Islanders’ zone on the sequence that led to Sissons’ goal.
