They are all must-wins now for the Islanders. No less than coach Lane Lambert acknowledged that. And yet, the Islanders keep finding ways to lose.
It’s three straight now after Tuesday night’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Senators at UBS Arena, all to Canadian teams outside the playoff picture, this time falling to a goalie making his NHL debut.
Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson scored in the shootout for the Senators while Kevin Mandolese stopped attempts by Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 32 shots for the Islanders (27-23-7), who couldn’t convert on an overtime power play for the second straight game, while Mandolese made 46 saves for the Senators (26-24-3).
The Islanders were coming off Thursday’s 6-5 loss to the visiting Canucks and Saturday’s 4-3 overtime road loss to the Canadiens. The Islanders couldn’t hold a third-period lead against either team, neither a playoff contender.
“Right now, we view every game as a must win,” coach Lane Lambert said before Tuesday’s game. “It starts tonight and we’ll just continue forward from there with each and every game.”
Mandolese got the start with the Senators’ top two goalies, Cam Talbot and Anton Forsberg, both on injured reserve and Mads Sogaard, also a rookie, in net for Friday night’s come-from-behind 4-3 overtime win over the visiting Flames.
Brady Tkachuk’s tip of Tim Stutzle’s feed to the crease for a power-play goal at 3:41 of the third period gave the Senators a 2-1 lead.
Lambert pushed the Islanders through a hard practice Monday, emphasizing boxing out at the crease as well as on-ice communication.
“Communication is critical and I think there’s times when we can talk more,” Lambert said.
“We talk about it and encourage it. They’re the ones that have to do it. They’re the guys that are playing the game. They’re the guys that have to be the other guys’ ears and eyes for them in certain situations. It’s something that we’re striving to get better at and we need to get better at.”
The Islanders were in sync on their last of five regulation power plays, as Brock Nelson’s one-timer from the right circle off defenseman Noah Dobson’s feed tied it at 2-2 at 7:13. Nelson extended his career high point streak to 11 games, the longest for the Islanders since Josh Bailey had an 11-game streak from Dec. 9-31, 2017.
After a sluggish start to the first period, Lambert tweaked his lines to start the second. He dropped the struggling Bailey from Horvat’s top line with Mathew Barzal and placed him on Casey Cizikas’ line with Matt Martin, technically not the fourth line with Otto Koivula subbing for an injured Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
The Islanders finally beat Mandolese for a 1-0 lead at 5:41 of the second period as defenseman Ryan Pulock connected with a wrist shot from the high slot.
But the Islanders were unable to build on that lead despite 19 shots in the second period. Stutzle tied it at 1-1 at 17:32 of the second with a blistering wrist shot from the slot that deflected in off Pulock’s stick.
Mandolese, 22, preceded both teams onto the ice for pregame warmups as he took his solo rookie lap. He has split the season between the AHL and the ECHL but without impressive statistics for the Senators’ top minor-league affiliate. Mandolese is 4-7-2 with an inflated 3.60 goals-against average and a sub-substandard .879 save percentage for the Senators’ Belleville AHL squad.
He struggled with his rebound control and was too fidgety early but the Islanders did not test him enough before he settled in.
