Plenty went into the Islanders’ latest loss as their season continues to spiral. But in a twisted sign of their recent misfortunes, they had the wrong Sebastian Aho on Saturday night.
The Hurricanes center completed his hat trick with an empty-netter after his first two goals came at the expense of the Islanders defenseman with the same name.
The Islanders lost, 5-2, to the Metropolitan Division leaders at UBS Arena. About 60 former players, in attendance for Alumni Weekend, heard the crowd intermittently boo the home club.
“Everybody has more to give and we have to find a way to give more,” coach Lane Lambert said. “It was a tight hockey game. To me, this game could have went either way. It didn’t go our way and I know that’s been a trend lately. But we have to grind and battle to have things go our way.”
The Islanders (23-20-5), who fell to 10th place in the Eastern Conference, erased an early two-goal deficit with two first-period goals within 1 minute, 40 seconds. They still lost their fourth straight, extending their skid to 1-5-3. They were 0-for-2 on the power play, leaving them in a 3-for-54 drought, and have scored only 15 goals in their last nine games.
Lambert insisted after the game that his message is still getting through to the players. He said execution, particularly on the power play, was at fault.
“Everything that happens within the game, whether it be five-on-five, whether it be offensively, whether it be the power play, whether it be the penalty kill, that all falls on coaching at some point in one way, shape or form,” Lambert said. “There’s no question everyone looks in the mirror, myself included.”
Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves. Frederik Andersen stopped 25 shots for the Hurricanes (29-9-8), who are on a 4-0-1 run.
The Hurricanes’ Aho extended the lead to 4-2 at 7:09 of the third period, getting to the crease after the Islanders’ Aho turned the puck over in the defensive zone.
The Hurricanes scored twice in the first 3:52 of the first period, with Jordan Staal deflecting a shot 44 seconds in, then feeding Jesper Fast at the crease, prompting Lambert to call his timeout.
“We talk about starts and that was probably just as bad as you could draw it up,” Brock Nelson said. “It’s not how you want to start a game. Reset, refocus and go. I thought we did that in the first.”
The Islanders did respond with two goals within 1:40 to tie the score later in the period. Simon Holmstrom rifled a wrist shot past Andersen at 14:02 after skating over the blue line. Nelson’s wraparound at 15:42 tied it at 2-2.
But the Hurricanes’ Aho scored the winner at 16:40 of the second period when his shot deflected in off the skate of the Islanders’ Aho.
Top-line center Mathew Barzal started with his ninth different line combination in the 12 games since right wing Oliver Wahlstrom suffered a lower-body injury.
Barzal had Anders Lee and Casey Cizikas, usually the fourth-line center, as his wings on Saturday. Barzal took a game-high six shots but has gone seven games without a point.
He was asked if it’s up to him or those joining his line to make adjustments in their game.
“I’m not really sure,” Barzal, who performs best with the puck on his stick, told Newsday. “It’s just hard to find chemistry with anybody when every other game it’s a new line. It is what it is. We’ve had some injury troubles. Guys have gone down.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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