GAME RECAP: Islanders 3, Oilers 0

ELMONT, NY - It was a long night on Long Island.
Forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored twice in 2:06 of a three-goal second period for the New York Islanders, who received a stellar 49-save performance from netminder Ilya Sorokin in a 3-0 shutout victory over the Edmonton Oilers at UBS Arena on Wednesday night.
Goaltender Jack Campbell made 28 saves in the defeat that marked his first start for the Oilers in four games and 13 days.
"I think what this game came down to is we were unable to solve their goaltender," Woodcroft said. "Pouring 49 shots on someone, that's that's what we set out to do every game. We didn't find a way to crack him, and then some of the ones that went in going the other way, we felt those were controllable situations where we made a couple of mistakes and one guy gets inside us on a backcheck."
Edmonton are now 10-10-0 on the season, having gone 3-7-0 since starting the season with 7-3-0.
"I thought we were winning games early in the season that maybe we didn't deserve to win, which is never a bad thing I guess, but ultimately it's going to catch up to you," captain Connor McDavid said.
The Blue & Orange wrap up their three-game road trip through the tri-state area on Saturday afternoon when they face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

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REHEATING THE SOUP

It had been four contests since Jack Campbell took to the crease for the Oilers, and the American netminder wasn't going to let a broken nose and two black eyes from a puck to the face in Monday's game against the Devils stop him from being able to make the start tonight.
"I saw Jack Campbell put in a solid week of practice. I saw him the other day in a game take a puck to the face, and I saw Jack Campbell burn to be in the net tonight," Coach Woodcroft said. " So he wasn't going to let that deter him from getting the start."
As the Oilers offence in front of him waded its way into the game, needing 12 minutes to register their first shot, Campbell was steady in the opening period before coming up with his biggest stop four minutes into the middle frame.
Leon Draisaitl had a break-out attempt broken up by Brock Nelson below the goal line before it was wrapped it around in front to the danger area. Anders Lee was waiting in front for a chance that he quickly put on goal, but Campbell shot out with the right pad and denied a great scoring opportunity for the Islanders.
"I thought he gave us a chance to win tonight and that he made some good saves when he called upon," Woodcroft added. "I'm impressed with Jack Campbell and that level of stick-to-it-iveness of refusing to let a puck to the nose take a start away from them."

FIRST BLOOD

With the Oilers on their first powerplay, the puck was broken up in the Isles' end and soon ended up in the back of Edmonton's net.
Adam Pelech and Zach Parise combined to break up a pass through the middle by Nugent-Hopkins that was meant for McDavid, sending the Islanders up the ice shorthanded. Up the middle of the ice in transition, Pageau was flashing to the net, where centre one-tapped Parise's feed past Campbell in front to open the scoring 4:33 into the second period.
"Everybody -- winger, centres, D -- we need to be harder not giving them as much time," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I thought tonight we were probably a little bit better than we have been in the last few games, but they still found a way to get one at 5-on-5 and we didn't."

TWO MINUTES LATER...

The Islanders then found themselves on the powerplay soon after going ahead and doubled their lead. Pageau tried to send a pass across the crease to the waiting Lee, but his feed struck the stick of Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard before it found its way past Campbell just 2:06 after the Isles opened the scoring.
"We had numbers there on the short-handed goal against, and another one we put into our own net," Woodcroft said.
Before the period concluded, the Oilers deficit would be three after Oliver Wahlstrom came out from behind the net and fed Sebastian Aho, who beat Campbell glove side with 3:04 left in the middle frame. An uphill battle to get back into the hockey game for Edmonton got even steeper.
"Then, the third one was kind of late in the second period there," Woodcroft added. "We had enough people back. We didn't sort it out right and ended up in the back of our net."

NOTHING SPECIAL

It was not a memorable night for the Oilers special teams. The Islanders were the only ones to make anything happen on Edmonton's powerplay, which went 0-for-5 and surrendered a shorthanded goal to Pageau after coming into tonight's game tied with the Boston Bruins for 21 power-play goals -- the most in the NHL.
The Islanders were 1-for-2 with their own man advantage against the Oilers, who've given up the second-most PPG's against (22) and power-play opportunities (79) in the NHL this season.
"We continue to have to defend, and obviously when powerfully gives up one, it's never going to be easy," Connor McDavid said. "We get five powerplays and don't score and give up a shorty, it's a recipe for losing."

PARTING WORDS

Coach Woodcroft on the mistakes made leading to goals against tonight:
"I think hockey is a game of mistakes, and what we try and set out to do is to make fewer than the opposition and capitalize when they make mistakes. They made plenty of mistakes tonight that were unable to capitalize on. It seems in tonight's game, it was a tight-checking affair. We didn't give up a lot, but when we did give up something, it was a big error that ended up in the back of our net."
"I go to the positives of that game. I think we did a lot of things that we wanted to do. We weren't able to crack a goaltender. The mistakes that we did make, we can clean those up. For us, I think sometimes results lag. I think we're working to build a game and finding out who this year's version of the Oilers are. While we've done some good things, we haven't done enough good things for long enough to put something together here the way we would like to. I think sometimes when you're figuring that stuff out, those chances sometimes end up in the back of your net. No one's happy about it, we're working to correct it, and in the end if we can do a better job of handling those situations, then we'll come out on the right side of the result."

Darnell Nurse on the differences between the Oilers first ten games of the season and the last ten:
"I don't know if there's been a huge change. I think if you look at the two ten-game segments, we found ways to win games that maybe we shouldn't have in the first ten, and we haven't been able to do that in the second ten, so our game needs to be a lot more consistent and that just comes from the room."
"Just keep playing. There's a lot of guys in that group. It's a really resilient group. We went through a stretch last year where the sky was falling on us, where everyone was quitting on us, and we found a way to push ourselves into the playoffs. We're in a lot better spot sitting here speaking right now than were in the depths of that last season, so we know we need to better. There are no excuses in our room. We know the things we need to take care of. We had a tough ten-game segment and we put it behind us. We have a big challenge against New York on Saturday."
McDavid on his assessment of Edmonton first 20 games:
"Yeah, I mean obviously up and down. We were 7-3 in our first ten, and then 3-7 in our last ten. That's the complete opposite of how we started and a little bit of a similar situation last year."
McDavid on the team's collective defending:
"Yeah, I truly think that our defending has been better of late than at the beginning of the year. Obviously, it's a long way to go -- I think that's pretty clear. We continue to have to be stingier in our own zone, harder in front of our own net, all those types of things.