Takeaways: Islanders Point Streak Snapped in 5-2 Loss to Canucks

The New York Islanders’ six-game point streak came to an end on Wednesday night, as they fell 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks at UBS Arena.

Casey Cizikas (SHG, 1A) and Tony DeAngelo scored for the Islanders, but Ilya Sorokin allowed four goals on 19 shots before being pulled in favor of Marcus Hogberg. Kiefer Sherwood (2G), Aatu Raty, Derek Forbort and Teddy Blueger scored for the Canucks, while Thatcher Demko stopped 26-of-28 in the win.

The loss keeps the Islanders (74 points) on the outside of the playoff picture, as they missed an opportunity to leapfrog the Montreal Canadiens (75 points) for the second wild card spot.

“It just wasn't good enough tonight in kind of a must-win game,” Adam Pelech said. “We're just disappointed with our performance.”

DEMKO THE DIFFERENCE EARLY

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko was the difference early, as the Islanders did everything but score in a first period where they outshot Vancouver 10-5. Demko stoned Bo Horvat twice on backdoor/two-on-one plays, as well as Anthony Duclair on a point-blank chance.

Demko also did his thing to prevent an Isles comeback in the third period, robbing an Anders Lee backhander with an outstretch pad in tight when the Isles were down 4-2. Pierre Engvall and Kyle Palmieri hit a pair of posts in the game, but that was as close as the Isles came. Demko stopped all 11 Isles high-danger chances at five-on-five.

“He played great. It's probably a different game if a couple of those go in early,” Pelech said. “I don't think we did a good enough job creating chances, maybe in the second and third ... and unfortunately, we couldn't really keep applying that pressure throughout the game.”

Demko improved to 4-0-0 against the Islanders in his career.

SOROKIN PULLED:

Wednesday was a tough night for Ilya Sorokin, who was pulled early in the third period after allowing four goals on 19 shots. There was little Sorokin could do on the Canucks first goal, as Sherwood was all alone in front of the net to tip a Quinn Hughes shot at 2:39 of the second period. Raty, a former Islander, tied the score 2-2 at 13:59 with a deflection at the side of the crease – Vancouver’s second goal from its fourth line on what Roy called a blown coverage.

The other two goals also came in similar fashion, as Forbort beat Sorokin between his glove and body in the final minute of the second period to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead. The momentum stayed with the Canucks through the intermission, as Blueger scored on Vancouver’s first shot of the third period, again beating Sorokin low glove. That ended the netminder’s night, as Hogberg came in relief.

Hogberg stopped all five shots he saw.

ISLES ALLOW FOUR UNANSWERED GOALS

After allowing the first goal, the Isles showed some fight, with Cizikas netting a shorthanded tally to tie the score on a two-on-one rush with JG Pageau. DeAngelo gave the Isles a 2-1 lead 3:25 later, but that was the high-water mark for the Islanders, as Vancouver scored four unanswered goals.

It marked the third straight game the Isles let a lead slip – and they’re 0-1-2 over that span.

THIRD LINE PLAYS WELL

Patrick Roy had praise for the line of Engvall, Cizikas and Hudson Fasching on Wednesday night. Cizikas finished the game with a goal and an assist, while Engvall had a team-high five shots, not including his shot off the iron.

“Casey had legs. He was skating well, Pierre had a good night as well, so did Fasching,” Roy said. “That line was really good. Casey scored a big goal, tie up the game shorthanded on a really nice pass by Pager. They were buzzing on that four on four, and then Tony's DeAngelo scored that goal. The had a strong game.”

LINEUP NOTES:

Hudson Fasching returned to the Islanders lineup after missing Monday’s game with an illness.

Adam Boqvist came out of the lineup to accommodate Fasching’s return.

ODDS AND ENDS:

• JG Pageau took a Tyler Myers shot to the face midway through the third period, but returned
• The Islanders went 0-for-2 on the power play, generating one shot
• The Canucks improved to 4-0-0 against the Islanders at UBS Arena
• Noah Dobson and Tony DeAngelo played a team-high 22:55 TOI.

NOTABLE QUOTE:

Roy on his team’s performance in the third period:

“I would have loved to see us have a bit of a push and we never had that push. Sometimes you just need a goal or something to happen. I was hoping that changing the goalie could have created that push and but, I mean, hey, we’ve play a lot of games, and tonight some of our guys didn't play their best game.”

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders head out on a two-game road trip starting Saturday afternoon in Tampa Bay. Puck drop is at 2 p.m.