Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Wild 5-2 

The New York Islanders fell 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at UBS Arena, finishing their homestand with a record of 1-1-1.

Emil Heineman and JG Pageau scored for the Islanders, but it wasn’t enough to combat offense from Vinnie Hinostroza, Ben Yurov, Brock Faber (GWG), Marco Rossi and Kirill Kaprizov (1G, 1A). David Rittich stopped 21 of 26 shots faced in the losing effort while Jesper Wallstedt made 25 saves in the win for the Wild, who were playing on the second half of a back-to-back set.

“Tonight we didn’t execute as a group, we didn’t compete as well as they did,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “I’m not looking for excuses for our group, I just feel like tonight they were the better team.”

TAKEAWAYS:

- The Islanders held the edge on shots in the opening frame 10-7, but the Wild dominated the period, jumping to a 2-0 lead by the 12:32 mark of the game. Jonas Brodin slid a backdoor feed to Hinostroza to open the scoring at the 7:24 mark of the first period and the Wild built on that with Yurov’s goal in a scramble in front of the net.

“I thought we played pretty well in the first five minutes, outshooting them and I felt like we were outplaying them,” Bo Horvat said. “But they get that first goal and our job is to weather the storm, and we didn’t do a good enough job of going back at them.”

- The Wild remained in the driver’s seat from there on out and Roy said that the Wild were the better team after their first goal. Even after Heineman scored to make it 2-1, Minnesota quickly regained the two-goal lead 1:18 later. Matthew Schaefer attempted to clear the zone after Rittich made a save on a Matt Boldy shot, but Faber gloved it down and scored from the high slot to take a 3-1 lead, which held as the game-winner.

- Heineman’s goal was his sixth goal of the season. The 23-year-old winger is four goals shy of tying his career high of 10 goals, just 14 games into the season. Heineman scored 10 goals in 62 games last season with Montreal.

- The Islanders had a burst of momentum at the end of the second period when Pageau gave the Islanders a chance to get back into the game. Anders Lee flipped the puck from the d-zone to the Wild blue line, where Pageau picked up the pass and raced in and cut across the net before he shelved a shot past Wallstedt pull the Islanders back within two. Pageau’s goal injected some life into the group but they couldn’t find a way to climb out of the deficit.

“There are nights where you think you can get back into the game and we had that little buzz, that push at the end of the second period,” Roy said. “We had a couple of looks and we missed the net and had a few chances in front of the net. It could have been a 4-3 game. We were one shot away to be back in it. We just couldn’t get anything going tonight.”

The Islanders will have to turn the page fast, as they’ll take on the New York Rangers in the second half of a back-to-back set on Saturday.

“We have to reset,” Anders Lee said. “Big rivalry game. Energy should be there. Let’s go reset and wipe this one away, the recipe tonight wasn’t going to work for us and we’re going to have to play a much better game tomorrow.”

NEXT GAME

The Islanders will kick off a seven-game road trip that begins with a contest against the New York Rangers on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 7PM.