3 Takeaways: Second Period Sinks Isles in 5-3 Loss to Sabres

The New York Islanders winless streak reached four games (0-3-1) on Saturday afternoon, as the Isles fell 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.
Mathew Barzal, Noah Dobson and Kieffer Bellows scored for the Islanders, who fell behind 4-1 after two periods and could not climb out of the three-goal hole.

"We had a slow start and they were on us early," Trotz said. "Second period, we just didn't show up. We didn't have the battle. We were slow to pucks, we didn't close and we weren't hard. We buried ourselves."
Casey Middelstadt, Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Vinnie Hinostroza and Jeff Skinner scored for the Sabres, who picked up their fourth-straight win.

SECOND PERIOD SINKS ISLES:

The Islanders spent the majority of Saturday's game chasing the Sabres. While Mathew Barzal was able to answer Casey Middelstadt's icebreaker in the first period, the Sabres blew the game open in the middle frame.
Buffalo scored three times in the second period, turning a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 game. It started with Rasmus Dahlin's power-play goal at the 1:17 mark and snowballed from there. Tage Thompson's team-leading 37th of the season made it 3-1 at the 4:05 mark, as the Sabres leading scorer one-timed a Jacob Bryson feed up high on Ilya Sorokin.
SABRES 5, ISLANDERS 3
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Vinnie Hinostroza scored the eventual game winner at 12:48, taking a nifty backhand feed from Anders Bjork, skating into a soft spot in front of the net and beating Sorokin.
The Sabres held a 22-11 shot advantage through two periods and led high-danger scoring chances 10-3 at five-on-five (per Natural Stat Trick).
"We weren't skating and weren't hard on guys," Dobson said of the second period. "We made it easy for them and if you give good players good time in this league they'll make you pay."
The Islanders made a push in the third period, scoring a pair of quick goals to cut the deficit to 4-3. Noah Dobson took the puck end to end and roofed a backhand over Tokarski at 8:45 while Kieffer Bellows redirected a Ryan Pulock shot at 10:22. Pulock, to his credit, kept the play alive with a keep-in at the Sabres blueline prior to the goal.
Ultimately that was as close as the Islanders came, as Jeff Skinner made it 5-3 at 12:40, knocking in a Thompson rebound at the side of the net.
"We had a pushback in the third," Trotz said. "We got into a one-goal game and needed to be firm for a couple of minutes and needed to keep them on their heels and we didn't."

DOBSON HITS OFFENSIVE MILESTONE:

Noah Dobson hit another milestone in his impressive breakthrough season. Dobson's 12th goal of the year officially marked the most goals for an Isles defenseman in the last decade, one more than Nick Leddy's 11 in 2016-17.
Dobson showcased his smooth skating ability and offensive instincts on the play, keeping his head up through the neutral zone, taking open ice on the outside before eventually cutting back towards the net.
The 22-year-old also keyed the Islanders first goal in the first period, hitting Barzal with a slap pass to give the center an open look.
"He's got that capability," Barzal said of Dobson. "He's a heck of a player. Even on his goal, takes it wide, does it himself, he's an unbelievable skater. It's going to be fun to see him grow, he'll be one of the elite d-men in the league here pretty soon. It's nice as an organization to have a piece like that."
With two points on Saturday, Dobson extended his point streak to three games (1G, 4A) and upped his season total to 47 points (12G, 35A). Dobson is looking to become the first Islanders' defenseman to hit the 50-point plateau since Mark Streit had 56 points (16G, 40A) in 2008-09.

Video: NYI@BUF: Dobson makes the shot pass to Barzal

ISLES GET INTO PENALTY TROUBLE:

The Islanders had trouble sustaining offensive pressure on Saturday and part of that was due to playing shorthanded for long stretches.
The Islanders took six penalties on Saturday, killing off five of them against a Buffalo power play that ranks first in the NHL since March 27 (36.6%).
"We took too many penalties and we're taxing a lot of our key players that we need offensively," Trotz said. "They're getting taxed pretty hard, so I think that hurt us offensively."
Buffalo had eight shots on the power play, with Dahlin scoring on a point shot through traffic. Saturday also marked the fourth-straight game the Islanders had allowed a power-play goal.
The penalty kill was also without JG Pageau for a second-straight game as the center was in COVID-19 protocol.
Conversely, the Islanders streak of three games with a power-play goal came to an end.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders wrap up their back-to-back set with a Sunday matinee against the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck drop is at 1 p.m.