3 Takeaways: Islanders Late Push Falls Short vs Stars

The New York Islanders' four-game winning streak was snapped on Tuesday, as the Isles fell 3-2 to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
JG Pageau and Brock Nelson scored on a night where offensive chances were at premium for the Islanders, who were outshot 40-21, but staged a late third period push. Marian Studenic, Tyler Seguin and Radek Faksa (SHG) scored for the Stars.
"It's disappointing we didn't get off to a better start," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "If we'd have played with the desperation we did in the second half of the game there. I think we'd be sitting here with at least a point."
In the loss, the Islanders (73 points) remained 11 points back of the Washington Capitals (84 points) for the second Wild Card in the Eastern Conference with 13 games to play. With the win, Dallas (83 points) moved ahead of Vegas (82 points) and into the second Wild Card in the Western Conference.

SHOOTING STARS KEEP ISLES AT BAY:

The Stars were certainly shooting on Tuesday.
Dallas put 40 shots on goal for the fourth time this season, making it another busy night for Semyon Varlamov. That was especially true early, as Dallas outshot the Islanders 18-7 in the opening frame, before taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
STARS 3, ISLANDERS 2
ISLANDERS ARTICLES
Gamecenter
Rapid Recap
ISLANDERS-STARS VIDEO
Full Highlights

Postgame: Bailey and Pageau
Postgame: Nelson and Pelech
KINGER'S CALLS
Pageau Snaps Wrister
"Their intensity was really good early and they were they were winning all the battles or winning all the races and they put volume up," Trotz said. "They create a lot of volume and they win those races and they kept some puck possession. I thought we sort of gathered ourselves a little bit, but we didn't we didn't put the puck in the play enough."
Nelson tied the score 2-2 less than a minute into the second period, keeping, shooting and scoring on a three-on-one rush, but that held up as the only Islanders shot on goal in the first 18-and-a-half minutes of the second period. The Isles registered three total shots on Jake Oettinger in the second and were being outshot 29-10 through 40 minutes.
The Stars were also adept at getting bodies to the net on Tuesday night, making it an uncomfortable game for Varlamov, who returned to the crease after backing up Cory Schneider on Sunday.
That played a role in Dallas' three goals. Jamie Benn crashed the net on the Stars' opening goal, seemingly making contact with Varlamov and knocking the goaltender off kilter, which left an open net for Studenic at 7:29. The Islanders challenged for goalie interference - a call Trotz said he was surprised went against his team.
Seguin scored Dallas' second goal, going to the net and having Miro Heiskanen's shot deflect off him and past Varlamov, putting the Stars ahead 2-1 with under a minute to play in the period. Faksa's shorthanded goal, which put Dallas ahead 3-2 in the second period, also came around the net, with the forward crashing hard before redirecting a centering feed from Luke Glendening.
"We've played well for a quite a stretch now, tonight maybe not so," Nelson said. "They did good job of kind of getting in our face right from the [defensive] zone as we're trying to break out into the neutral zone, so we didn't have much possession in entries."
The Islanders upped their game in the third period, generating more shots (11) than the previous two periods combined, not including a Zdeno Chara put a wrister off the post on an Islanders penalty kill midway through the third. Mathew Barzal had the Islanders best chance to tie the score, but was robbed by a diving Jake Oettinger on an open net with under three minutes to play.

DOBSON RECORDS TWO ASSISTS:

Noah Dobson hit a pair of milestones on Tuesday night, reaching both the 30-assist mark and the 40-point plateau.
The defenseman assisted on both goals, passing the puck up the ice quickly for Pageau, who raced down the ice before sniping high on Oettinger. Dobson later skated the puck out of the Isles zone and through neutral ice before dishing to Nelson the Islanders' second goal.
Dobson showed off his poise with a pair of nice dangles in the game as well, sidestepping Seguin behind the Islanders' net in the first period and pulling a similar move off in the Dallas zone later in the game.
The 22-year-old also made a nice defensive play to keep the Islanders comeback hopes alive late in the third, laying out to block Stars leading scorer Joe Pavelski with the net empty.
"Noah was really good," Trotz said. "He made some really poise plays tonight. He keeps continuing to grow, big minutes and you know at the end of the game he gave us a chance to have one more crack at it. So, you know he's just keeps continuing to grow and as we said, you know the growth plate for him has been pretty steady."

ISLES TO GET TWO DAYS OFF:

The Islanders schedule has been relentless of late, including 17 games in March - a franchise record - and 20 total games in a span of 36 days. The Islanders haven't had consecutive days off since March 8-9, but will get some necessary reprieve with two days before their tilt with the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
"It just seems like we played three straight weeks or four straight weeks of four games in seven nights," Nelson said. "Three back to backs and some travel. You get that routine and that rhythm of just kind of game day or non-game day, so to have two non-game days is going to probably feel like an eternity to a couple of guys being able to just relax, recover and shut the mind off a bit from the game but hopefully we can use that and take advantage of that."
Things will pick up quickly for the Islanders, as Friday's game is the first half of a back-to-back set that wraps in St. Louis on Saturday.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders five-game road trip continues on Friday night in Raleigh as the Islanders take on the Hurricanes. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.