It was the first game for the Stars without center Tyler Seguin, who will miss 3-4 weeks after sustaining a cut to his right Achilles tendon in a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. Dallas did have its top-scoring defenseman, John Klingberg, back in the lineup after he missed seven games with a lower-body injury.
Thomas Greiss made 33 saves for the Islanders (38-23-9), who lost their third straight game and are 1-3-2 in their past six. New York fell one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 earlier Saturday, in the race for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Islanders, who have scored three goals during the three-game losing streak, hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"What we're going through right now is a little bit of adversity. What that does is that it challenges your confidence," Islanders coach Jack Capuano told MSG Network. "We're just not putting the puck in the net. We're going to have to stay with it and continue to work."
The Islanders finished 8-4-2 in a stretch that saw them play 12 of 14 games away from Barclays Center. They host the Flyers on Monday, beginning a stretch in which they will play eight of their final 12 games at home, where they are 21-8-4.