3 Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Flames 5-2

The New York Islanders hopes for an Alberta split were extinguished on Saturday night, as the Isles fell 5-2 to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Noah Dobson and JG Pageau scored for the Islanders, who dropped their second game in as many nights to a Western Canadian opponent. Adam Ruzicka, Chris Tanev, Andrew Mangiapane, Erik Gudbranson and Elias Lindholm scored for the Flames, who skated to their sixth-straight victory in the process.

"They played a good game," Pageau said of the Flames. "I don't think it's the commitment, everyone wanted to go out there and win the game and play the same way we did the last two games. At this point, we have a couple of days in front of us and we have a chance to finish the road trip .500. That's going to be our goal. We can look at what we did well the past two games and what we did today and come back stronger the next game."
The Islanders will look to finish their road trip with a .500 record when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Tuesday.

SOROKIN STARTS AS VARLAMOV PLACED IN COVID-19 PROTOCOL:

Ilya Sorokin was a surprise starter for the Islanders on Saturday night, as Semyon Varlamov was placed in COVID-19 protocol just minutes before puck drop.
Varlamov led the team on the ice for warmups and was listed as the starting goalie on the roster report, before the results of his COVID-19 test - to travel back to the United States - returned a positive result.
"He was scheduled to play, he warmed up and was feeling fine, but while we're in Canada we have to test and we got the test results basically 10 minutes before we were going back on the ice," Head Coach Barry Trotz said.
"He'll have to re-test, but I can't tell you much past that, or if they got the results on the second test or not," Trotz added. "I haven't talked to our trainer yet."
The last-minute change thrust Sorokin into starts on consecutive nights for the second time this season, with the other coming on Oct. 23 and 24 in Arizona and Las Vegas. Sorokin posted shutouts in both wins, but also had the benefit of five days until the Islanders next game to recuperate.
FLAMES 5, ISLES 2
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In less than ideal conditions, Sorokin stopped 24-of-29 against the Flames.
Trotz said he would speak with President and General Manager about how to proceed if Varlamov misses time, but an answer isn't likely to come until Monday as the team is traveling to Buffalo on Sunday.

OFFENSE CAN'T LIGHT SPARK VS FLAMES:

The Islanders offensive momentum, which produced six goals against the Vancouver Canucks and 38 shots against the Edmonton Oilers, had a harder time turning over on Saturday night against a Flames team that averaged the fewest goals and shots against at the Saddledome.
The Islanders finished the game with 21 shots, but went long stretches without a puck on net, notably going 12:39 into the second period without a credited shot. The 21-shot final didn't include a few shots off the post.
While the Islanders were able to somewhat contain Calgary's top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk - the trio came together in the final five minutes with the game effectively over - the Flames active D factored into three of Calgary's five goals. Rasmus Andersson pinched off the blueline, circled and net and fed Ruzicka for the opening tally at 9:58, while Tanev beat Sorokin with a long-range wrister that took a slight deflection off Zach Parise's stick. Tanev's goal came 61 seconds after a power-play goal from Dobson.
"They broke out well. Their D are always active, so that makes it tough," Mathew Barzal said. "It felt like we had a lot of 2 on 3s, 3 on 4s, never any advantage on the ice. That's a good hockey team over there, big, fast, good D that move and a nice system. That's a good squad. We had them 1-1 and then fell off a little bit."

Calgary took a 3-1 lead as Mangiapane tapped in a tic-tac-toe play from Ruzicka and Nikita Zadorov, but the Islanders got it back 1:18 later. Parise fished out a loose puck behind the net and fed Pageau in front for the French-Canadian's sixth goal of the season and first goal since Dec. 19.
While the power play had early success on Dobson's seven of the season, the man advantage was in tough against Calgary's league-leading home penalty kill, which stifled the Islanders during a big opportunity to tie the score at the end of the second period. With Blake Coleman in the box for tripping Cal Clutterbuck, the Islanders had trouble gaining the zone and ultimately went into the intermission down a goal.
Still, the 3-2 scoreline had the Islanders within striking distance entering the third period, but on their third game in four nights, were unable to keep up with Calgary in the third as the Flames pulled away. Gudbranson powered a shot through Sorokin that the goaltender nearly pulled off the line at 8:00, while Lindholm scored his 18th of the season to make it 5-2 at 15:13, marking the second goal scored from a feed below the goal line.
"The biggest disappointment was the third," Trotz said citing the schedule as a partial factor. "They had better legs. They were winning more battles and getting more pucks. They got the fourth goal there. That was one that we needed to not have go against us to give us a chance."

NHL Video - Title : Video: NYI@CGY: Pageau fires shot off pass from below net - Url: https://www.nhl.com/video/c-10552830

PARISE-PAGEAU-WAHLSTROM TRIO PRODUCES:

Three of the Islanders four lines featured new faces on the team's trip to Western Canada, with the Parise-Pageau-Oliver Wahlstrom trio the only one to remain intact.
The line accounted for the Islanders' only even strength goal of the evening and had a handful of looks on a night where the team, as a whole, struggled to generate. A Wahlstrom ripper in the first period bounced around the crease, with Parise taking a few swipes at it in front of the net.
The trio came together in the second period, with Parise fishing out a loose puck behind the net and feeding an open Pageau, who finished the night with two points. Parise now has two points in his last three games (1G, 1A), while Wahlstrom picked up an assist. The line as a whole had 10 shot attempts on Saturday night, paced by Pageau's five. Pageau also won 13-of-19 draws (68%).

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders wrap up their four-game road trip on Tuesday night in Buffalo. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.