ELMONT — Ilya Sorokin can solely achieve this a lot when the Islanders in entrance of him are outworked and outplayed.
Clinging to a 1-0 lead heading into the third interval of a sport in which they have been largely dominated, the Islanders yielded two targets to the Minnesota Wild simply 1:33 aside to drop their fourth straight sport, 3-1, on Thursday night time at UBS Area.
“That one stings,” Islanders head coach Lane Lambert admitted after the horn.
Sam Metal scored the game-winner off of a Scott Mayfield turnover with simply 7:32 to go in regulation after Frederick Gaudreau simply snuck a one-timer that Sorokin practically gloved for a save-of-the-year candidate, however his mitt with the puck was over the purpose line to simply barely enable the Wild on the board.
“We made some costly mistakes in terms of just in your own end,” Mayfield stated. “I think we just have to be available for each other and do the best we can on getting pucks out of the zone, through the natural zone. Turnovers are going to happen. W ejsut have to clean them up a little bit better than tonight.”
Mayfield’s giveaway was essentially the most egregious one of many Islanders’ staggering 23 turnovers.
“I thought [the Wild] did a pretty good job of forechecking,” Lambert stated. “But still, I think it’s a little bit on us in terms of the decisions and some of the plays that we made. We have to clean that up.”
Sorokin made 33 saves on the night time whereas the Islanders may muster simply 20 photographs on Wild backup Filip Gustavsson’s purpose.
“He’s been outstanding for us,” Lambert stated. So it’s irritating. Definitely, we want to rating extra. We’d like to give him some assist and he’s achieved a terrific job of holding the puck out of the web and holding us in each sport.”
In what was one in every of their extra disjointed first durations, the Islanders somewhat surprisingly took the lead in a body in which they have been outshot 7-4. With 3:11 to go, an innocent-looking wrister from the fitting level by defenseman Scott Mayfield bounced and fluttered previous the blocker of Gustavsson.
It was the primary time the Islanders opened the scoring in 5 video games. For Mayfield, he tied a career-high along with his fifth purpose of the season — a mark he additionally hit in 2019-20 in 67 video games. Thursday night time’s purpose was simply his forty third sport of the 2022-23 marketing campaign.
That, nonetheless, was pretty much as good because it bought for Mayfield as his night time took a major downturn. He dedicated two penalties on the night time, together with a hooking infraction simply 49 seconds after his purpose — setting the tone for a second interval that but once more was largely dominated by the Wild.
The guests had the photographs benefit in the second interval at 16-9, however Sorokin remained unbreakable as he was below waves of strain thanks to three Islanders penalties following the expiring of Mayfield’s hook that carried over into the beginning of the center 20 minutes. New York dedicated 5 penalties in whole on Thursday night time and whereas they managed to kill all of them off, it restricted any form of offensive momentum that in the end couldn’t be constructed.
“We were in the box too much tonight,” Islanders captain Anders Lee stated. “One of those nights where every little thing we did, we were getting called for. Our killers had a great game… Sorokin played phenomenal.”
But it surely was a short-handed alternative for the Wild that yielded the equalizer when Joel Eriksson Ek led a 2-on-1 down the fitting wing and despatched a centering cross to an onrushing Frederick Gaudreau. The middle’s shot coaxed a sprawling glove save from Sorokin, however his glove that miraculously discovered the puck was simply past the purpose line with 9:05 to go in regulation.
Simply 1:33 seconds later, the Wild bought their second and the game-winner as a turnover from Mayfield on the left boards discovered Mats Zuccarello, who fed Metal for the go-ahead one-timer.
Kirill Kaprizov added an empty-netter with 1:13 left to cap off one of many worst losses the Islanders have suffered during the last two seasons.