Islanders three
Paul Bereswill/APAndrej Sekera (l.) and Patrick Dwyer (r.) celebrate Manny Malhotra's (c.) goal in the second period.
HURRICANES 3, ISLANDERS 2
Islanders' fans want to believe in a team that consistently shows flashes of brilliance, but nights like Saturday expose their flaws and prove just why they remain in the cellar of the dismal Metropolitan Division.
The Isles had their three-game win streak snapped with a 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes, another lowly division foe. The Canes scored all three goals in the second period, all of which could have been prevented.
After killing off two early penalties in the second period, the Isles (14-22-7) coughed up their first goal when Patrick Dwyer stripped Andrew MacDonald in the Islanders' zone and fed a cutting Manny Maholtra, who beat Evgeni Nabokov to break a scoreless tie at 6:57. Less than a minute later, John Tavares caused a turnover in the Carolina zone and scored on a quick give-and-go with Thomas Vanek to tie the game at one.
Jordan Staal gave the Hurricanes (17-16-9) back the lead on a transition play that appeared as though it could have been called offside. Several Islanders appeared to feel the same way, hanging back on the blue line instead of marking their men. Then, 57 seconds later, winger Brett Sutter scored his first goal since 2008 on a rebound to make it 3-1. Rookie Calvin de Haan, who has played well in his rookie season, failed to get the puck deep, which led to a bad Islanders line change and a transition chance by Jeff Skinner and then the finish by Sutter.
Vanek scored a power play goal with 24.2 seconds to play to give them life, but MacDonald's slap shot at the final buzzer was snagged by Carolina goaltender Anton Khudobin's glove.
Nabokov who has stepped up of late with a 3-1-0 record, seven goals allowed and a .944 save percentage over his last four starts entering Saturday, finished with 27 saves. Even in the loss, Nabokov made several huge stops to keep the game within reach and can't take too much blame for three goals that were gift-wrapped by the players in front of him.
The Islanders may very well already be out of the playoff race, but their recent surge had them clinging to hope. Unfortunately, on Saturday they fell back to earth.
'We talked about when we came back from Christmas I think there were 22 games until the Olympic break,' Colin McDonald said. 'We've dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, but at the same time we're still not out of it. There's time to make ground, but at the same time there's not much time to get back in it. We've just got to continue to do more of the same and I know it's a little cliché, but really just take one game at a time. We are fighting for our lives here.'
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