3 Takeaways: Isles Lose Late Lead in OT Loss to Panthers

The New York Islanders fell to the Florida Panthers 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
Sebastian Aho and JG Pageau scored for the Islanders, but it was not enough to counteract Aleksander Barkov's third-career hat trick, which powered the Panthers to their 11th straight win.

Video: NYI Recap: Pageau tallies 4th PPG of year in OT loss

ISLES LOSE LEAD LATE VS PANTHERS:

For 56 minutes, it seemed like the New York Islanders were going to limit the NHL's highest-scoring team - averaging 4.19 goals per game - to a single tally.
The Islanders were holding onto a 2-1 lead, with Ilya Sorokin turning in another stellar and solid performance. A pair of penalties had the teams playing four-on-four, giving Florida some extra ice work with, enough for Aleksander Barkov to find the puck in the slot, and hit the back of the net, bypassing plenty of traffic with 3:58 to play.
PANTHERS 3, ISLANDERS 2 OT
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Postgame: Aho and Pageau
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KINGER'S CALLS
Aho Scores Second
Pageau's Power-Play Goal
Unfortunately for the Islanders, that was just the table-setter for Barkov, who completed his third-career hat trick 20 seconds into overtime, powering the Panthers to an 11th-straight win. Jonathan Huberdeau assisted on all three goals, vaulting atop the NHL's scoring lead with 111 points.
"They're their top guys kept coming out and putting a lot of heat on us, that's pretty good line," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "They've got some high-end guys. Barkov had three goals and Huberdeau had three assists."
The Panthers outshot the Islanders 42-26 on the evening, 12-5 in the first period, 17-12 in the second and 12-9 in the third. Despite the skewed shot totals, the Islanders had a pair of leads in the game. Sebastian Aho opened the scoring at 4:56 of the second period before Barkov's first of the night tied the score at 14:12. JG Pageau's power-play goal at 1:01 of the third period put the Islanders ahead 2-1 before Barkov's second tied it.
While losing a late lead did not sit well with the Islanders - who dropped to 14-7-2 in their last 23 games.
"That's a heck of hockey team over there, they could have buried us tonight and I liked our efforts, the whole way, way through. I thought we put a solid game," Mathew Barzal said. "Just our organization the mindset is, no matter what the circumstances are, back to back, or long road trips or a situation like this, where we know we're eliminated and I think just we're building a culture here that no matter what the circumstances are, we're willing to play hard and we're building towards something bigger than, you know, this season."

AHO SCORES SECOND OF THE SEASON:

Sebastian Aho scored his second goal of the season on Tuesday night.
Aho buried an Andy Greene feed top shelf on Sergei Bobrovsky, scoring from the high slot. The defenseman made a pivotal play in the sequence, keeping a Panthers clearing attempt in at the blueline.
Aho was playing his second-straight game after being a healthy scratch for seven games.
"I mean, it's always fun to help the team and I always try to do my best. But I try not to think about it. Just go in play solid and make the easy plays instead of trying to get a flashy with it. Sometimes you get to get rewarded and I did that tonight."
Aho played 12:55 on a pairing with Greene, with two shot attempts and a pair of giveaways.

ISLES HONOR BOSSY:

Tuesday marked the first Islanders home game since the passing of Mike Bossy on Friday morning and it was an emotional scene at UBS Arena.
Fans arrived early to gather and pay their respects to the Islanders legend, laying flowers in front of his Hall of Fame plaque on the concourse. The ice was lit up with Bossy's number 22, while his lengthy list of accomplishments was displayed on the inner rings of the arena bowl.
The team aired a three-and-a-half-minute video tribute to Bossy before pausing for a moment of silence. Bossy's daughter, Tanya, and granddaughters Alexe and Gabrielle were in attendance for the ceremony that culminated in "Boss-y! Boss-y!" chants.
"Yeah, it was pretty special," Barzal said. "I looked back in the crowd after the video is done and I saw some tears coming down a couple of faces and you know, obviously there's probably a lot of people in the building tonight that saw him play live and you know, saw him win on Long Island. Obviously by the sounds of it, he was a pretty special human and a special player, so an amazing tribute by our organization."

NEXT YEAR:

The Islanders take on the New York Rangers on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.