3 Takeaways: Islanders Drop 6-3 Decision to Bruins

The New York Islanders dropped a 6-3 result to the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
The Islanders scored twice on the power play with one goal from Brock Nelson - who reached the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career - and one from Zach Parise. Anders Lee (1G, 1A) also scored, while Semyon Varlamov made 38 saves on 44 shots in the loss.
Boston's scoring featured goals from Craig Smith, Taylor Hall (1G, 2A), David Pastrnak (1G, 1A), Brad Marchand (1G, 1A), Erik Haula (1G, 1A) and Jake DeBrusk.

Linus Ullmark made 24 saves on 27 shots in the Bruins' win.
"They're a good hockey team, they're legit," Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "They've added a little bit bigger than they were last year. Especially on the back end. They filled in some holes and some other areas and they're legit, they're playing good hockey right now. I thought our first period we survived and that we got a big goal at the end of the period. And then those two quick goals sort of took it away from us and we never really got stabilized after that… They got their breaks and, you know, they deserved it when they were the better team."

ISLANDERS LET GAME SLIP AWAY FROM THEM:

From the get-go, Boston came out firing and took advantage with a 2-1 first period and only worsened the damage with a four-goal second period to ice the game. The Bruins' 36 shots through two periods of play marked the most the Islanders have allowed since Trotz took over as head coach back in 2018.
Boston scored the game's icebreaker at 4:03 after coming out with a blistering start. They converted as Brandon Carlo's point shot ricocheted off the end boards to the doorstep, where Smith put the puck past Varlamov.
The Islanders seemingly responded at 11:46 as Kyle Palmieri redirected a lofted point shot from Noah Dobson, but the goal was overturned due to Palmeiri's stick being too high - marking the winger's third disallowed goal this month.
BRUINS 6, ISLANDERS 3
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KINGER'S CALLS
Nelson's 30th Goal of the Season
Lee's Power-Play Goal
Nelson's Power-Play Goal
Parise Scores on the Power Play
In the latter half of the frame, the Islanders weathered Boston's initial 10th-ranked power play, but went back on the kill almost immediately after where they surrendered their second goal of the game. The Bruins wasted no time on their second extra-man advantage as Andy Greene was sent to the box for tripping at 19:19. Just seven seconds into the power play, Hall redirected Charlie's McAvoy's point shot off his stick and over Varlamov to double Boston's lead 2-0.
In the second period, instead of getting deflated by Nelson's goal with 12 seconds left in the opening frame, Boston countered with a four-goal second period with strikes from Pastrnak, Marchand, Haula and DeBrusk.
At 2:13, Haula threw a puck at Varlamov from the slot. Varlamov made the save, but Pastrnak swooped in, collected the rebound, turned and beat him to extend Boston's lead 3-1.
Just 1:43 later the Bruins furthered their lead to 4-1. After getting sandwiched between Nelson and Adam Pelech and falling, Marchand crashed the net front in time to grab a feed from Patrice Bergeron and slip his shot far side of Varlamov at 3:56.
The Bruins capitalized on a slick passing sequence in transition from Hall, Pastrnak and Haula, with Haula reaching his stick out to bury Pastrnak's cross-slot feed on the backdoor at 14:33.
On a fluke play at 18:18, DeBrusk showcased his hand-eye coordination as he grabbed a puck off the end boards, sent it backwards where it deflected off Pelech's stick. The Boston winger turned and redirected the puck mid-air past Varlamov to make it 6-2 Bruins.
"It was pretty solid hockey and promotion from the start and even halfway through the game," Lee said. "They had some good pressure and made some good plays and also got a couple bounces. It just got away from us a little bit against good team like that. It's tough to tough to cover two or three goals and but the first half of that game, I thought it was a great hockey game and we were hanging in and all aboard and we just couldn't come home overcome the, you know, too many goals deficit."
The Bruins locked it down in the period of play as they outshot the Islanders 8-5 and controlled most of the play, but the Islanders trimmed their deficit down 6-3 with a late power-play goal from Parise.
After a fight broke out between Matt Martin and Nick Foligno - the pair's second of the season - Parise tapped in a feed from Anthony Beauvillier on the doorstep at 14:43.

MINNESOTA TWINS STAY HOT AS NELSON HITS 30-GOAL MARK:

The Minnesota Twins stay hot.
Across the league, both Nelson - of Warroad, Minn. - and Lee - of Edina, Minn. - have been two of the hottest goal scorers. With Saturday's tally, the pair join St. Louis' David Perron and Nashville's Roman Josi atop the leaderboard for the most goals in the month of March with 11, all of which have come in the last 12 games for Nelson and in the last 11 games for Lee.
For the first time in Nelson's career, the 30-year-old centerman has reached the 30-goal mark.
"I think it's great, I know it comes in a loss today, but that's a combination of a lot of his work and his effort he's put into his game," Lee said of Nelson. "You can just see how much he's progressed over time and the player he's become. He's an all-around player. I mean, top to bottom. He can make plays, and he's proving now how good of a goal scorer he's been in his career and to hit this accomplishment. It's awesome. We're all super pumped for him. It's just great to see. It's well deserved."
Nelson reached the milestone with his strike in the waning seconds of the first period. The goal unfolded as former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara's point shot struck the crossbar and dropped to the left of the net front. From the backdoor, Nelson swept in the loose puck with his backhand to put the Islanders on the board with his 30th goal of the season.
As the Islanders were trailing 4-1 early in the third period and in need of a momentum shift, the Islanders captain came through clutch. During the Islanders' first power-play of the game, Lee buried his 25th goal of the season from his office. As Ullmark made back-to-back saves on a Dobson point shot and Jean-Gabriel Pageau's follow-up attempt, Lee made him pay on the final rebound by hammering in the loose puck at 5:12.
With his two-point (1G, 1A) outing against Boston, Lee extended his point streak to three games, where he now has seven points (2G, 5A) in that span.

JOHNSTON DRAWS BACK IN LINEUP:

Johnston returned to the lineup and skated alongside Casey Cizikas and Matt Martin, with Kieffer Bellows coming out of the lineup.
The winger logged 12:12 of time on ice, threw four hits and had one shot.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders complete their back-to-back set as they return to UBS Arena to host the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow afternoon. Puck drop is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.