The Islanders are playoff bound and still vying for home-ice advantage. The young Sabres are auditioning for next season with nothing left on the line this season.
This deep into a season, those are often the toughest teams to face.
The Islanders couldn’t hold a two-goal lead and lost, 4-2, in Buffalo on Monday night as the Sabres scored three times in the third period.
The Islanders (31-16-5) dropped to fourth place in the East Division, one point behind the Bruins, who beat the Devils on Monday and have played one fewer game.
The Isles play in Buffalo again on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. They have four regular-season games remaining through next Monday’s finale in Boston.
Semyon Varlamov (36 saves) had his shutout streak end at a team-record 248:00, the 12th longest in NHL history and the third longest in the expansion era (since 1967-68.) Tage Thompson’s power-play wrister from the right circle at 14:04 of the second period brought the Sabres within 2-1.
It also ended the Islanders’ team record shutout streak at 212:35 and snapped a run of 18 straight penalty kills. Rasmus Asplund, left open at the crease, tied the game at 2 at 11:25 of the third period, ending a sequence of five straight Sabres’ shots.
Sam Reinhart’s winner came at 15:56 as he beat Mathew Barzal on a faceoff after the Islanders iced the puck and got to the crease to deflect defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen’s shot from the point. Barzal was not able to convert on a chance from the low slot off a Sabres’ turnover just prior to the icing. Reinhart then added an empty-netter.
Michael Houser, a 28-year-old journeyman who has played mainly in the ECHL, made 34 saves in his NHL debut with the organization’s top four goalies, including Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton, injured. It was Houser’s first game in any league since March 7, 2020.
The Sabres will miss the playoffs for the 10th straight season. For the Islanders, qualifying is only the first goal.
The Islanders built a 2-0 lead on the Sabres as rookie Oliver Wahlstrom deflected defenseman Adam Pelech’s shot from the left point at 10:42 of the second period. The Sabres had won a challenge for goalie interference on Casey Cizikas just 35 seconds into the second period after Matt Martin deflected defenseman Ryan Pulock’s point shot. Sabres defenseman William Borgen did push Cizikas into Houser.
Houser made nine saves in his first-ever NHL period and the one that eluded him was purely accidental. Pelech attempted to feed the puck to the crease from the left wall but it instead deflected in at 9:15 off the stick of Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju.
