UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Islanders certainly didn’t play like a first-place team.
Which is why they remained in third place in the East Division after a 6-3 loss to the Capitals on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 1,400 at Nassau Coliseum.
The first-place Capitals, who had three two-goal leads before the final margin, won back-to-back games at the Coliseum with the teams concluding their three-game series on Tuesday night in Washington.
Rookie goalie Ilya Sorokin gave up two questionable goals and, too often, was caught too far back in his crease. But he was also not helped out defensively.
The Islanders (29-14-5) did go 2 for 2 on the power play and added Adam Pelech’s highlight-reel short-handed goal. But they were too sloppy in their five-on-five play.
The Capitals are one point ahead of the second-place Penguins and now four points up on the Islanders with eight regular-season games remaining.
Coach Barry Trotz opted to start Sorokin (24 saves) for the first time against the Capitals after Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves in Thursday’s 1-0 shootout loss. Varlamov also had a shutout in the team’s previous game, making 29 saves in a 1-0 win at the Coliseum on April 6.
The Capitals played without Alex Ovechkin, who exited late in the third period on Thursday with a lower-body injury. Ilya Samsonov stopped 21 shots after making 26 saves on Thursday, with Pelech’s short-handed tally one he should have stopped.
But the Capitals clinched the game on a second softy against Sorokin when Evgeny Kuznetsov’s shot from the right circle went under his right arm at 7:35 of the third period to make it 5-3. Daniel Sprong, playing in Ovechkin’s spot on the top line, made it 6-3 with his second goal at 14:43 off Kuznetsov’s offensive-zone faceoff win.
Pelech’s short-handed slap shot just over the blue line through Samsonov’s pads after he skated the puck up ice from below the Islanders’ goal line tied it at 2-2 at 7:37 of the second. It was the Islanders’ third short-handed goal of the season and the NHL-high eighth the Capitals have allowed.
However, the Islanders quickly fell behind by two goals again. Nic Dowd got to the crease to lift a rebound over Sorokin — playing deep in his crease — to make it 3-2 at 12:21 as the Capitals’ fourth line scored their second of the game. That became 4-2 at 14:46 as Sprong converted a feed to the crease from Kuznetsov after Mathew Barzal’s neutral-zone turnover.
But Pageau swatted in a backhander off a puck ricocheting off the end wall to make it 4-3 at 17:12 with the Islanders’ second power-play goal. The Islanders had been 1 for 15 on the man advantage in the last five games.
Sorokin, coming off a 30-save performance in a 1-0 overtime win in Philadelphia this past Sunday, was uncharacteristically shaky in the early going.
The Capitals took a 1-0 lead on Garnet Hathaway’s soft shot from the left wall that caught Sorokin off guard and beat him to the short side.
Sorokin couldn’t be faulted on the Capitals’ second goal, as T.J. Oshie, set free by Casey Cizikas, got low in the slot to finish a good passing sequence from linemates Anthony Mantha and Nicklas Backstrom. Sorokin was lucky to not give up a third, first-period goal as Kuznetsov’s shot went off the crossbar at 15:47.
And the Islanders somewhat salvaged the first period as Cizikas drew a hooking penalty from defenseman John Carlson at 14:03 and, 25 seconds later, Anthony Beauvillier scooped the puck out of a frenzy at the crease and lifted a backhander for a power-play goal to make it 2-1.
