Takeaways: Islanders Battle Back Late for Point in 3-2 Shootout Loss in Buffalo

The New York Islanders were down 2-0 early, but battled back to earn a hard-fought point on Saturday night in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.

Emil Heineman tied the score with a power-play goal with 29 seconds to play in the third period – and Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist – plus a shootout goal – for the Islanders. Rasmus Dahlin (PPG) and Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres, while Josh Norris scored the game-deciding goal in the fifth round of the shootout.

The shootout loss didn’t bust the Isles winless stretch, which extended to three games (0-2-1), but Saturday’s point felt like one earned, vs one left on the table.

“We played a resilient game,” Anders Lee said. “The way the last two games have gone, I thought we really showed some character tonight. It didn’t go our way again early on in the game, but we stuck with it and dug in and found ourselves clawing back into the game and getting a big point.”

David Rittich stopped 30-of-32 shots in the loss, while Alex Lyon stopped 32-of-34 shots in the win.

TAKEAWAYS

- The Islanders found themselves down early, with Dahlin going coast-to-coast on a Buffalo power play, weaving through the Isles penalty kill before burying a backhand on Rittich at 1:47. Buffalo’s power play nearly made it 2-0, but had a goal overturned due to Zach Benson interfering with Rittich.

Thompson officially made it 2-0 8:55 into the second period, skating down the left wing and tucking the puck behind a sprawled out Rittich. The goalie and Head Coach Patrick Roy weren’t thrilled with the play, which both felt were inconclusive. Roy said had the goal been credited to Peyton Krebs, who poked at the puck after, he would have challenged, but didn’t feel he had the grounds on the Thompson play.

- At 2-0, shots, and especially chances, were few and far between for the Islanders, who’d been limited to 23 shots or fewer in three straight games. Heineman took that personally and decided to up the shot totals himself, racking up a career-high 10 in the game.

“I felt like we hadn’t been shooting a lot lately,” Heineman said. “I figured I’d didn’t want to think about it too much, so pretty [thought] just shoot it.”

The 10^th wound up being the game-tying goal – a quick shot off a nice feed from Barzal in a six-on-four situation – as well as his 18^th point of the season, which tied his career-high.

“He didn’t waste those shots, he gave himself a chance to score on every one of them,” Roy said. “So he deserves a lot of credit for the success he’s having right now.”

- Barzal extended his point streak to seven games with a goal and an assist on Saturday. The goal – his 10^th of the season – was the result of a second effort around the net, burying his own rebound after a nifty feed from Lee below the goal line. Simon Holmstrom picked up the secondary assist on the new-look line.

Barzal also extended his assist streak to a career-high tying six games with his feed to Heineman. He nearly had a chance to win it on a breakaway in OT and scored a shootout goal. Not much more you could ask from Barzal, especially in the recent absence of Bo Horvat.

“It’s a great opportunity for him to lead the team and he’s doing that” Roy said. “That’ the leadership we need from him and produce every night and give us a chance to be in every game and that’s a role Barzal wants to play as well, so it’s nice to be successful.”

LINEUP NOTES

Max Tsyplakov drew back into the lineup for the first time since Dec. 7, replacing Max Shabanov.

Defenseman Marshall Warren, who was recalled on Thursday, drew into the lineup for the third time this season and first since Oct. 28. Adam Boqvist came out of the lineup in a corresponding move.

NEXT GAME

The Islanders host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday in their last game before the holiday break. Puck drop is at 7 PM.