NEWARK, N.J. — The Islanders still have eight days before they open the new UBS Arena at Belmont. But Thursday night was the closest they’ve come to playing a home game, both geographically and with the crowd split roughly 50-50 in its loyalties.
But the rink or the fan support won’t help if the special teams’ edge is tilted dramatically the other direction.
The Islanders lost their second straight as they continued their season-opening, 13-game road trip with the Devils scoring both on the power play and shorthanded for a 4-0 win before a crowd of 13,816 at Prudential Center.
Ilya Sorokin, making his 10th start for the Islanders (5-4-2), stopped 30 shots as the Devils (7-3-2) crowded the crease. Mackenzie Blackwood made 42 saves for his first shutout this season as the Islanders were blanked for the first time.
The Devils have won three straight, including Tuesday’s impressive 7-3 win over the Atlantic Division-leading Panthers while the Islanders dropped to last place in the Metropolitan Division after back-to-back trips to the NHL semifinals.
"We’re not sneaking up on teams," coach Barry Trotz said before the game. "It’s such a fine line in this conference, especially the division. You looked at the standings and you’re playing .600 hockey and you’re at the bottom of the barrel. We’ve got a couple of games in hand but that plays with your mind a little.
"There’s no wiggle room. The way the playoffs are set up, there’s going to be two or three really good teams that aren’t going to make it. I just don’t want to be one of them."
A better-functioning power play would help. The Islanders went 0 for 3 with four shots against the Devils and are 4 for 28 this season.
The Devils were 1 for 2 on the man advantage with five shots.
Defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s shot deflected in off a leaping Tomas Tatar’s leg for a power-play goal to give the Devils a 2-0 lead at 19:10 of the second period. The Islanders’ third failed power play came to end with two seconds remaining when Oliver Wahlstrom tripped the energetic Dawson Mercer in the right corner of the Islanders’ zone at 18:38.
Earlier in the period, as the teams skated four-on-four, Mercer came off the bench and hit the crossbar from the right at 15:58.
Mercer did make it 3-0 at 5:46 of the third period, getting ahead of the field for a breakaway off an Islanders’ turnover at the Devils’ blue line and slipping the puck through Sorokin’s pads. Hamilton completed the scoring at 16:33.
The Devils had taken a 1-0 lead on Janne Kuokkanen’s short-handed goal at 12:12 of the first period after the Islanders turned the puck over, leading to initial shots from defenseman P.K. Subban and Nico Hischier.
It marked the first time in nine games the Islanders hadn’t scored the first goal and had allowed a first-period goal as Sorokin could not recover to defend the right post.
Both goalies had to be sharp in the early going. Blackwood stopped Mathew Barzal’s breakaway at 1:30 of the first period and Sorokin turned aside Alexander Holtz off a two-on-one rush at 4:12 and Mercer at the crease at 11:10.
Blackwood then stopped ex-teammate Kyle Palmieri, playing his first game at Prudential Center since his trade to the Islanders on April 7, after Palmieri toe-dragged the puck around defenseman Damon Severson and got to the crease at 2:10 of the second period. Blackwood also stopped Anthony Beauvillier on a snap shot from the left and Palmieri at the crease as the sequence continued at 14:35 of the second period.
