Recap: Stars 5, Islanders 2

The New York Islanders did not get to exact some revenge on the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night, falling 5-2 at Barclays Center.
Tyler Pitlick scored a pair of goals for the Stars, while Remi Elie's second-period goal held up as the game winner, as Dallas opened up a 5-0 lead before the Islanders got on the board. Anders Lee scored a pair of goals - including his team-leading 19th of the season - for the Islanders, who dropped to 9-2-2 at home this season and saw their four-game home winning streak against the Stars snapped. Dallas won the season series 2-0-0, taking a 5-0 decision in Dallas last month.

"I remember that game in Dallas we couldn't get going and they dominated us," Lee said. "I didn't feel like they dominated us tonight, it was more that they capitalized on their opportunities."
Down 1-0 after Pitlick's first goal, the Islanders had their best chance to change the complexion of Wednesday's affair. Adam Pelech found John Tavares with cross-crease, backdoor feed, but Kari Lehtonen (32 saves) stretched across his net to rob the Islanders captain. Instead of being in a 1-1 tie, the Islanders found themselves down 2-0 shortly after, as Alexander Radulov squeaked a puck through Jaroslav Halak (16 saves) at 15:46.
"I think he knows he has to have the second one," head coach Doug Weight said. "It's frustrating. We're all frustrated and I'm sure he is too."

Dallas' momentum at the end of the first period carried into the second, as Elie potted a rebound to make it 3-0 1:01 of the middle frame. Jamie Benn made it 4-0 at 9:21 of the second, prompting Weight to pull Halak and play Thomas Greiss (six saves) in relief.
"Some things didn't go our way, but I don't think we helped ourselves in the first half of the game," captain John Tavares said. "We seemed sluggish, seemed to fight the puck a little bit and didn't move quick enough. It didn't allow us to establish our forecheck."
Pitlick deflected his second of the game past Greiss at 0:21 of the third period to make it 5-0. Anders Lee broke Lehtonen's shutout bid at 1:06 of the third, sweeping a Josh Bailey rebound in for his 18th goal of the season. Lee's second of the game - a power-play goal - made it 5-2 and gave the power forward the team lead in goals (19).
After the game, Weight said he felt his team generated enough opportunities to win.
"It was a sluggish game, but it was a sluggish game by both teams," Weight said. "I guarantee we had 25 good opportunities. You're going to lose some of those and give them credit, they got the lead, capitalized. I'm just looking at the whole picture. It was a winnable game."

The Islanders get a chance to move on from Wednesday's game quickly, as they head to Columbus for a divisional matchup with the Blue Jackets on Thursday. The Islanders have shown an ability to rebound after one-sided losses going 8-0-1 the game after losing by three or more goals under Doug Weight.

BOYCHUK RETURNS:

Johnny Boychuk returned to the Islanders lineup after missing three straight games. Boychuk had six shots, two hits and skated 17:40 TOI on Wednesday.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders head to Columbus for a meeting with the Blue Jackets. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.