Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Lightning 4-1

The New York Islanders’ troubles with the Tampa Bay Lightning continued on Tuesday night, as the Isles fell 4-1 to the Bolts at UBS Arena.

Bo Horvat scored a shorthanded goal for the Islanders, but Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jake Guentzel (1G, 1A), Victor Hedman and Nick Paul (ENG) scored for the Lightning, who beat the Isles for the second time in four days.

In the process, the Islanders’ winless stretch reached six games (0-4-2) their longest skid since a six-gamer from March 11-21, 2024. The Isles have allowed four-or-more goals in all six contests.

“At the end of the day, at this time of year, we're trying to make a push here. It's just not good enough,” Horvat said.

Tuesday’s loss keeps the Islanders (74 points) five points back of the Montreal Canadiens (79 points) for the second card wild spot. The Isles also trail the Columbus Blue Jackets (77 points) by three points, while Columbus holds a game in hand. Both Montreal and Columbus won on Tuesday.

TAKEAWAYS:

- The Islanders power play went 0-for-4 on Tuesday night, generating just one shot on goal in the process. Head Coach Patrick Roy identified a nearly four-minute stretch of power play time – with a 13-second five-on-three bridging the two – as a key moment of the game. Aside from an open look on a backdoor play for Horvat, there wasn’t much for the Isles, who rued the opportunity to take a lead on the Lightning.

“It was a key moment in that game, and we didn't take advantage of it,” Roy said. “There are moments in the game where you need to clutch, and we didn't do good enough on those power plays.”

While the power play struggled to produce, the shorthanded unit went four-for-four and came through in the first period, as Horvat netted his second shorthanded tally of the season, the Islanders’ eighth as a team. Ryan Pulock intercepted a cross-ice pass and sprung Horvat, who kept, shot and scored stick side, tying the score 1-1 at 10:57 of the first period. Horvat’s goal ultimately made it an even night for the special teams.

“Our power play wasn't good enough by any stretch of the imagination,” Horvat said. “It just hasn't been good enough all year and that's on us to try to make a difference. Penalty kill was obviously good against a really good power play, but again, our power play needs to make be a difference.”

- Tampa Bay’s top line of Guentzel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov left their mark on the game with a pair of goals 2:32 apart in the second period.

The first of the two goals came on the heels of a harmless-looking dump-in, as Kucherov drew in two Isles to the corner, only to thread a pass to Guentzel at the far post. Guentzel shook loos of Adam Pelech just enough to convert the backdoor feed at 8:09.

The trio struck again shortly after as Pelech’s dump-in was blocked by Guentzel at the Tampa blue line, sending a three-on-one rush back the other way. Kucherov fed Victor Hedman, who was unimpeded in the slot and beat Sorokin high blocker at 10:41.

“You feel like you don't give them much all night, and then all sudden, you give them two breaks, and it's in the back of the net,” Horvat said. “With a line like that, you almost have to play a perfect game and limit their opportunities. And we just didn't do a good enough job of that tonight.”

- Horvat had a noticeable game for the Isles. In addition to his goal – his 25^th of the season – the center had some grade-A chances, including a first period breakaway stopped by Vasilevskiy. Horvat tied Tony DeAngelo with a team-high five shots on goal and won eight-of-14 draws.

- The Islanders allowed the opening goal for the ninth time in 11 games on Tuesday, as Oliver Bjorkstrand deflected Darren Raddysh past Ilya Sorokin at 8:46 of the first period. The Islanders have allowed the opening goal a league-high 47 times this season.

LINEUP NOTES:

Ilya Sorokin starting in goal was the lone lineup change from Sunday’s loss in Carolina. Sorokin stopped 20-of-23 shots.

ODDS AND ENDS:

• Noah Dobson played a team-high 22:14 TOI
• Kucherov’s two assists accounted for his 110^th and 111^th points of the season, vaulting him to the league lead.
• Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28-of-29 shots in the win, improving to 14-4-1 against the Isles.

NOTABLE QUOTE:

Ryan Pulock on how the Islanders need to approach the next eight games

We have eight games left, and there's 16 points there for us and, and we can only control those games. It's up to us in here to find a way to go win those games. That's all that we can control and that's got to be our focus here. You can't win all eight at once, but you have to go find that next one. Obviously, we're on a streak here, and we got to end that and get going the other way.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders host the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at UBS Arena. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.