3 Takeaways: Isles Recover One Point in 4-3 OT Loss to Sens 

The New York Islanders dropped their third consecutive contest falling 4-3 in OT to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon at UBS Arena.

Brady Tkachuk capped off a hat trick with the overtime winner for the Senators, along with a supporting goal from Ridly Greig in regulation. Matt Martin, Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat (PPG) scored for the Islanders. Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves in the overtime loss, while Joonas Korpisalo made 30 saves.

The Islanders salvaged a point, but missed an opportunity for an important second point and a chance to sweep the Senators this season. Instead ,their winless skid reached three games (0-2-1).

"We are better than this and we have to be better than this," Head Coach Patrick Roy said. "We did a lot of good things, but it's not enough at this time of the year. This was a big game for us."

The implications in the standings were not kind to the Islanders, as they slipped out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference after being leapfrogged by the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit (74 points) snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres to slot back into the playoff picture. The Isles (73 points) trail by one point to the Red Wings (74 points), but have one game in-hand.

"It's a good point, but we shouldn't be in that position anyway," Horvat said.

ISLES RALLY TO FORCE OT, FALL IN EXTRA FRAME:

The Islanders let a third period lead slip, recovered to force overtime, but couldn’t get the job done in the extra frame. 

"We fought back to get one [point], but we needed two." Horvat said. There were parts of the game where I thought we played really well and then other parts where we were out of sync, losing our battles and not playing Isles hockey."

The Islanders were up 2-1 to start the third period with a record of 22-1-6 while leading after two periods entering the third period, but were unable to lock it down. The Senators bit back to tie the game at two apiece. In a tic-tac-toe play, Ridly Greig buried a feed from Tim Stutzle to even the game at 6:35 of the third period.

The Senators capitalized on the man advantage late in the third period, with Brady Tkachuk netting his second of the night at 12:14 of the period. 

Down 3-2, Mike Reilly drew a penalty with 1:50 remaining in regulation, giving the Islanders the late power-play opportunity.Roy took the risk and pulled Varlamov to create a 6-on-4 situation and it paid off, as Horvat blasted a shot from the point to beat Korpisalo to tie the game with 38 seconds left in the third period.  

"It was not a good start of a third period, there's no doubt," Roy said. "But in the last six minutes we started throwing pucks at the net our fans probably woke us up. We competed better and then all of a sudden we scored that goal, and we got that momentum back."

While Horvat scored the tying goal, he was on the hook for  an untimely penalty at 3:05 in overtime, as he went off for holding Stutzle. The Isles got through a majority of the kill, Tkachuk buried a pass from Long Island native Shane Pinto to win it for the Senators.

The loss dropped the Isles record to 22-1-7 when leading after two periods, while the Senators improved to 4-24-3 when trailing after two periods.

UNTIMELY PENALTIES STING ISLES:

The Isles gave up two penalties in crucial moments and went 1-for-3 on the night.

Taking two penalties late in the game hurt the Isles, whose penalty kill has struggled all season. Noah Dobson took a delay of game penalty with eight minutes to play in the third period, as the Senators used the opportunity on the man advantage to take a 3-2 lead. The Isles were put to the test again, faced with a kill late in the extra frame after Bo Horvat’s penalty at 3:05.

“We throw a puck in the stand on the third goal and then on the four goal we lost our edge on an odd man rush,” Roy said. “I mean, come on. We are better than this.” 

The Islanders were able to capitalize on their third power play of the game, ending a stretch where they went 0-for-11 on the man advantage. The Isles finished the game 1-for-3 on the power play.

MARTIN ENDS SCORING DROUGHT:

Matt Martin scored the opening goal with a wraparound against the Senators to snap Isles goal drought at 126:15, after they were shut out in back-to-back games. 

Kyle MacLean carried the puck along the boards and fed it to Cal Clutterbuck in front of the net. He sent a pass to Martin, who snuck around the net and buried his first career wraparound goal and fourth wraparound for the Isles this season.

Per team statistician Eric Hornick, the Isles have gone nine consecutive games without allowing a goal in the opening frame, which ties a franchise record set in the 1978-79 season. 

Martin snapped a 24-game goal drought with his third goal of the season. The veteran winger has three points (1G, 2A) in his last four contests (he missed the game in LA). 

NEXT GAME:

The Isles have to turn quickly turn the page as they’ll take on the New York Rangers at 1 p.m. at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon.