Takeaways: Lee Leads Isles to 5-4 Win Over Sens

The New York Islanders scored their second win of the season on Saturday, beating the Ottawa Senators in a 5-4 track meet at Canadian Tire Centre.

Anders Lee led the way with a three-point game (2G, 1A), including the game winner with 63 seconds to play to break a 4-4 tie. Emil Heineman, Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri scored for the Islanders, who fought out of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits for the win.

David Perron (PPG), Shane Pinto, Tim Stützle and Dylan Cozens scored for the Senators.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 of 33 shots for his first win of the season, while Linus Ullmark stopped 18 of 23 in the loss.

“It was one of those nights where we traded blows a little bit. Both sides could go back and clean up a few things,” Lee said. “You don’t want to see that every night, but we found a way to grind ourselves back into this… Coming away with two on the road here after a big win the other night, just to back it up, feels pretty good.”

TAKEAWAYS

- While the Islanders were happy with their resiliency on Saturday, they acknowledged the track meet type of game was a deviation from how they want to play defensively. The Isles were credited with 13 giveaways – Ottawa had 22 – and allowed Sorokin to see plenty of high-danger chances from start to finish. Sorokin jokingly said the game was like a “Western movie. Shot, shot, shot.” That said, Roy gave his team plenty of credit for their resiliency, as they clawed out of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits to earn the win.

“Turnovers costs us, we made some bad decision at times,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “When they were on the odd-man rush, we could have played a little different, but we found a way to win.”

- Lee had already turned in a strong game before netting the game winner with a deflection off a Max Shabanov shot and a secondary assist, but the captain put his stamp on the game late. Lee outmuscled Jordan Spence to gather the puck, cut to the front of the net and pulled off a spin-o-rama that got under Ullmark. A strong play from a strong player.

- It was an up-and-down day for Sorokin, who allowed four goals for a fourth time this season. While he was sharp early, he was beat by an unscreened shot from Perron in the first period and looked a little off his angles on Pinto and Cozens’ far-side shots from the left side. It was hard to fault him on Stützle’s shot from the slot and in fairness, he saw a lot of quality shots throughout the game.

That said, Sorokin came up with a huge save in the third period, denying a Pinto penalty shot 2:23 into the third period to keep the Isles down one. If that goes in, it’s probably a different game – and Sorokin still turned aside a few more good looks. He said he’d waited a while for his first win, but came up big when it mattered.

- The Drouin-Horvat-Heineman line got the Islanders back in the game in the second period, netting a pair of goals 3:07 apart. Heineman deposited a loose puck in front of the net at the 6:50 mark after a heads-up play from Scott Mayfield to shoot for Linus Ullmark’s outside pad. The Isles rode the momentum with Horvat eventually scoring on a Ryan Pulock feed off the rush at 9:57.

The line finished the game with a point each, six shots on goal and Heineman had a team-high seven hits.

- Matthew Schaefer’s point streak was extended to five games with an assist on Saturday. Schaefer tied Colorado’s Cale Makar for the longest point streak by an NHL blueliner to start their career. There were some teaching moments for young defenseman as well on Saturday. Schaefer got turned around on Ottawa’s third goal, winding up in no man’s land defending the Sens rush, leaving Stutzle wide open in the slot. Schaefer’s diving swipe on Pinto also led to the penalty shot, although the defenseman did get the puck first. Schaefer finished with a game-high 22:33 TOI.

- Credit to Ottawa’s top players who were difference makers. Stutzle picked Simon Holmstrom’s pocket on Ottawa’s fourth goal, leading a three-on-two rush that finished with Cozens one-timing the 4-3 tally past Sorokin. Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Thomas Chabot each had multi-point games, while Pinto scored his league-leading seventh goal.

- Palmieri tied the score 4-4 with his second goal of the season, but give some credit to Mathew Barzal who carried the puck from coast to coast before dropping for Palmieri. It was a small play, but Barzal also deserved credit for tying up the stick of the Senators defenseman to give Palmieri more room to shoot. Barzal has points in two straight games.

- The Islanders power play went 0 for 3 on Saturday. They had a 1:29 two-man advantage at the end of the first period, but couldn’t convert, generating four total shot attempts, but none on goal. Tony DeAngelo replaced Matthew Schaefer on the top unit during the five-on-three.

- The Islanders penalty kill went 1-for-2. A generally solid PK was negated by Perron’s power-play goal with three seconds to go. While Pinto’s second period goal technically wasn’t a power-play goal for the Sens, it came on a delayed six-on-five situation during a delayed penalty. Also of note, Casey Cizikas was tapped by Roy to serve an Islanders bench minor.

- The Islanders allowed the first goal for the fourth time in five games.

- Adam Boqvist made his season debut on Saturday, filling in for Alexander Romanov who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Boqvist played 15:10 on a pairing with Tony DeAngelo with one shot attempt blocked and one blocked shot.

NEXT GAME

The Islanders return home on Tuesday to host the San Jose Sharks. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.