ELMONT, N.Y. — It’s on to the next biggest game of the season for the Islanders. They blew the chance for two points in this one.
Alex Ovechkin’s heavy second-period hit on Jean-Gabriel Pageau changed the momentum as the Islanders couldn’t hold a three-goal lead in the first of four games between teams battling for playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Defenseman Dmitry Orlov’s goal with 32 seconds left in overtime lifted the Capitals to a 4-3 win on Monday night at UBS Arena.
The Islanders (23-18-4) conclude their five-game homestand against the NHL-best Bruins on Wednesday night. They were leapfrogged by the Penguins for the final wild-card spot while missing out on a chance to move within one point of the Capitals, who are in the first wild-card position.
Before the game coach Lane Lambert was asked whether this game might be the Islanders’ biggest of the season, given the potential playoff stakes.
“There certainly is an emphasis on every game,” Lambert said. “We have to collect points. We know that. So I think every game from here on in is going to be the biggest game of the year.”
Ilya Sorokin, making his fourth straight start and 12th out of the last 13, stopped 31 shots. Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves for the Capitals (23-16-6), denying Pageau’s breakaway in overtime.
The Capitals fought back to a 3-3 tie as T.J. Oshie deflected defenseman Erik Gustafsson’s shot from the left point at 5:54 of the third period. Kuemper had kept the Capitals within one with a dazzling stop on Hudson Fasching’s backhander at the crease at 3:18. Then, Matt Martin’s potential goal off a scramble at the Capitals’ crease was ruled no goal after a video review because he swatted the puck in.
The Capitals began their turnaround after Ovechkin’s crunching hit on Pageau along the wall in the Islanders’ zone at 6:34 of the second period. A wobbly Pageau was helped to his skates by defenseman Noah Dobson and headed straight for the team’s dressing room as Ovechkin’s high hit on Pageau, who had his back turned, was reviewed via video. Ovechkin went unpenalized and Pageau returned at 16:05 of the second period.
By then, the Capitals had closed to within 3-2.
A falling Garnet Hathaway made it 3-1 at 10:01, poking in the rebound of Ovechkin’s initial shot after Marcus Johansson won an offensive-zone faceoff. Tom Wilson, with his first goal of the season, cut it to 3-2 at 13:08. Hudson Fasching had pushed the Islanders' lead to 3-0 at 3:51 of the second, beating a screened and immobile Kuemper from the right circle.
The Islanders took a 2-0 lead in the first period with their simple, structured play.
Defenseman Sebastian Aho made it 1-0 at 4:24 with a shot through traffic from the blue line. Martin tipped in defenseman Alexander Romanov’s initial shot from the blue line to make it 2-0 at 13:19.
The Islanders’ goals in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Canadiens – both in the first period – also came from getting the puck on net from the blue line.
It’s exactly the strategy Lambert wants to see.
“I thought we got pucks on net,” Lambert said before the game. “We need to get more net presence, which we’ve talked about.”
The Capitals played the majority of the game with 11 forwards as Nic Dowd exited with a lower-body injury at 4:40 of the first period after taking a hard check from Clutterbuck.
